Survivors of Attacks Sink Teeth Into Fight to Save Sharks

She left a job in newspapers, and now works full time at the nonprofit Pew Environment Group. Sitting in a Caribou Coffee in downtown Washington this spring, she had an idea: Maybe other survivors would want to fight for sharks, too.

Two survivors whom she called said they were still too angry, she said.

The rest said yes. This visit suddenly became the biggest event for survivors that anyone could remember.

"We're seriously scarred . . . and some of us are missing limbs, and we have every right to hate sharks," Salamone said, sketching out the group' spiel for senators today. "I think the message is: If we can see the value in saving sharks, everyone should."

They are here to lobby for a Senate bill that would outlaw shark "finning" -- a practice in which fishermen slice off a shark's fin and toss the rest of its carcass overboard -- in U.S. waters.

The bill has already passed the House and has the support of federal fisheries managers, who say it would make existing shark protections easier to enforce. It will not save the world's shark populations; scientists say finning is largely done by overseas fishing crews. In the United States, it is already outlawed in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf, and is largely curtailed in the Pacific.

Last night, the group met at the Pew group's headquarters in downtown Washington to tell shark-survivor jokes (Anderson said his only revenge was the Timex watch the shark swallowed -- which went off at 5:15 every morning) and talk about the reactions to their scars.

DeGruy said his experience gave him an appreciation of what it is like to be a shark, seriously injured and left helpless in the water.

"We've been finned," he said of his injuries. "It's not a good thing."