"They Should've Been Dead": How 3 Men Survived 28 Hours Surrounded by Sharks - Michael J. Tougias
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Who are the three men and what happened to them at sea?
There was a point where Lou says, I'm probably not going to make it to Sunny. The men have split up. So they've broken the vow. One man has sprinted towards a boat about a mile away. So now you have the two holding back with the coolers. And this is long before the shark attack. And Lou says to Sunny, I don't think I'm going to make it. So please tie my body to the coolers. to get me home. And Sonny goes, I'm not going to tie your body to the cooler. I am going to shove you in that cooler and I'm going to bring you home no matter what. And Lou kind of rallied a little bit with Sonny's help. So it was very moving to see one man help the other and put his own future at risk by expending even more.
Welcome to Open Book. I am your host, Anthony Scaramucci. Joining us now is Michael Toges. He's the bestselling author of In Deep Water, A True Story of Sharks, Survival and Change. And happy 4th of July weekend coming up. Scared Out of My Mind at Age 11 in 1975 by Jaws. And now we have this incredible book that you're bringing to us. But first, tell us a little bit about your background, Michael. You're a best-selling author. You've got a lot of fun things in your career.
Yeah, a lot of my books are on this topic of survival at sea and off the chart rescues. I did one book called The Finest Hours that became a Disney movie and followed that up with A Storm Too Soon. So this has kind of been in my wheelhouse, if you will, but I like to diversify and every now and then go off the charts. I did a fun book called The Power of Positive Fishing, 35 years of friendship on the ocean with a buddy and what we learned.
I think we're all mystified by the sea, are we not? I think it's a fair thing to say. I mean, it's 70 plus percent of our planet, 30 percent of our land is what we live on, but... There's a lot of deep unknown mysteries about the sea. Is that fair to say, Michael? Aren't sharks a composite of those mysteries?
Absolutely. They will do the unexpected, you know, and I've done a lot of reading about sharks. I've snorkeled with sharks. I've had shark experience. In fact, I just got off the water here on Cape Cod just an hour ago. And it was only last year that a big great white went under my boat in four feet of water. So you never know what to find. One thing I take issue with is all the shark experts say, oh, they never attack humans intentionally. You know, they mistake you for a seal or a big fish. I'm not so sure about that. I've interviewed enough people and in deep water, it's a very unusual shark attack.
I mean, we think dolphins are very smart. We think whales are very smart. Are sharks smart, Michael?
I'll tell you this. I think they've learned just recently to come towards boats knowing the boat may be trailing a struggling fish at the end of a fishing line. Because I'm noticing more and more, both at Cape Cod and when I'm in Florida, as soon as the boat stops, sharks seem to appear. And, you know, it doesn't help that we have some diving going on where people feed the sharks. So I think they have learned that humans may offer a potential meal one way or another.
You have a body of work, which I want to reference, if you don't mind. One is The Finest Hours, which, of course, was made into a movie by Disney. You have Overboard. Of course, that's with the exclamation point because you're exploring disaster and decision-making under fire or decision-making under extreme amounts of pressure. Why is this happening? fascinate you. I feel like if I'm reading about first moments of human crisis, I feel like you show up. You have a way of explaining it better than most. I like that.
You show up. Well, because I do this for a living and I'm fascinated by it, I get pitched a lot of interesting ideas to look into. And most would be good for a magazine article, but could never sustain a book. Whereas In Deep Water really got my attention. And I've been looking for a story like this for five years, just waiting for the right story. Because it's 28 hours, they're treading water, and they've got to make a series of life and death decisions.
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