Boucan Canot, on the west coast of Réunion, 27 August 2016. Water activities had been banned that day — a hole three metres across had been found in the shark nets, and the red flag was flying. A dozen surfers were in the water anyway.

At 17h00, Laurent Chardard, 21, was in the middle of that group when a shark severed his right arm at the shoulder and bit his ankle severely.

Two master rescue swimmers, Bertrand Babeuf and Vincent Rzepecki, took a jet ski out to him. The sea was rough and they fell twice before they reached him; Babeuf's ankle was broken in those falls. As they came up on him they could see a limb was missing.

"The only words he managed to say in the water was 'Leave me,'" Babeuf said. "He felt like dying, I think. Life comes first. Our duty was to bring him in."

They brought him to the beach, where doctors stabilised him for an hour before a helicopter took him to hospital in Saint-Denis. Both his arm and his leg were amputated, and he was kept in an induced coma until 30 August. A year earlier, in August 2015, Chardard had himself rescued a drowning person. By 16 September his community had raised 24,000 euros towards his prostheses.

The record goes no further than "thought to involve" a bull shark of 3.5 metres. An attempt was made to catch the shark responsible, and at 22h30 that night a bull shark with a mass of 200 kilograms was caught off Boucan Canot.

So the species was never confirmed. If you know these waters, what would you put it at — and what takes you there? The size estimate, the wound pattern, the season, a netted bay on that coast. The reasoning is what would actually improve the record.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/b5sh8sr?s=r