Boy Who Fought Off Shark Ready to Swim Again

June 3, 2005 — -- Growing up just blocks from the beach in Freeport, Texas, Aaron Perez's favorite activity is playing in the sand and surf.

This summer, 12-year-old Aaron will approach the water with a bit more caution. Last July, while he and his family were fishing just 50 yards from shore, Aaron was attacked by a shark.

But the resourceful boy remembered something he had seen on TV the night before, and successfully fought off the shark.

Aaron first realized something was amiss when he noticed the fish were fleeing.

"I thought something weird was happening," he recalled.

Aaron he felt a bump from the shadowy water below.

"I turned to see what it was and it rose. The fin rose and then just clamped onto my leg and I started beating it and then when I did my arm slipped in its mouth," Aaron said. "He was shaking me trying to, like, take me into the water … bring me down or something."

The shark continued to attack, but Aaron fought back.

His father, who was nearby, was horrified watching the attack unfold. "I could see Aaron trying to punch the shark, and the shark was throwing him around like a rag doll from side to side," said Blas Perez.

Luckily, Aaron had watched a documentary the night before that showed what to do if attacked by a shark.

As Aaron's mother, Thelma, recalled: "The man on the Discovery Channel said if you get attacked by a shark, you should hit them in the snout and the gills."

And that's exactly what Aaron did. "I started punching it and tried to make it go away," he said. "It seemed like forever but now that I think about it, it was only about a minute."

"I can remember him slamming that shark with his left hand, trying to get away from him," said a family friend, Don Townes, who was also fishing that day. "He was fighting him all the way. He wasn't going to let him take him, and that shark was big enough to take him where he wanted to go."