Nantucket’s “Shark Wrestler’’ lost his hat and sunglasses once, but after getting up close and personal with more than 130 sharks, he’s still in one piece. Some call him crazy, but he’s hasn’t been bitten once.

Elliot Sudal, a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, catches, tags, and releases sharks in the knee-deep water along Nantucket’s coast, The Boston Globe reported. The tags allow the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration to track the sharks and study them in the hopes of saving a species that has been fished to near extinction.

Sudal rose to fame two years ago when a video of him tagging a shark along the shore went viral. The media dubbed him the “Shark Wrestler,’’ and since, some scientists have questioned whether he’s in it for the photo ops or to help the sharks.


“I know this is controversial,’’ Sudal told The Globe. “I want to use this attention for good, rather than being some macho guy on the beach catching sharks.’’

Read the full Globe story here.

Watch: Sudal wrestles sharks

Related gallery: 13 sharks that roam the water of New England