Man uses his bare hands to save shark's life on Jersey Shore

BEACH HAVEN, New Jersey (WABC) -- A man at the beach and a lifeguard grabbed a shark that washed up on shore to save its life on the Jersey Shore.

Commotion erupted at Beach Haven on Sunday afternoon as a lifeguard spotted something heading toward a shoreline that was packed with people.

Andrew Boris captured the whole thing on video.

"The lifeguard just started whistling, and calling everybody in. We realized they saw a shark," Boris said. "We saw it actually riding the waves, coming back into the shore."

The shark made it to dry land, but that's when the real drama started to unfold.

"And this guy just walked up, just grabbed it with two hands, and like ran off with it," Boris said.

And pretty nonchalantly at that!

"I don't know if he's a fisherman or just one of these manly guys who just goes and wrestles sharks for a living, but he just put both hands around it and lifted it up in the air like it was nothing," Boris said.

That barehanded grab was followed by even more heroics!

"One of the other lifeguards grabbed it from him, and then they tried to make their way out into the surf to try to let the shark go, but they kind of got into distress because they were a little too deep," Boris said. "So then the other lifeguard in the Sea Doo went out to rescue that guy and the shark, and he made this amazing one hand grab of the shark, held it over his head as he was going out and everyone was cheering."

It was a safe, happy ending for all involved.

"The guy rescued the shark, and then he rescued the guy who was trying to rescue the shark," Boris said. "They just kind of made their way out into the sunset."

The shark is no Great White. It turns out to be a sand shark, which is fairly common in the waters off of the Jersey Shore, but rarely that close to the beach.

Luckily for the guy who grabbed it with his bare hands, sand sharks are not considered aggressive.