With shark attacks on rise in the US self-styled shark wrestler Elliot Sudal comes to the rescue

WITH the US suffering a spate of shark attacks a self-styled shark wrestler has become an Instagram hit. But what on earth is he doing it for?

THERE are many reasons why people become a hit on Instagram but US man Elliot Sudal surely has the most unique.

Sudal, who lives on the east coast island of Nantucket, enjoys catching sharks and wrestling them bare-handed out of the sea. He then posts photos to Instagram of himself posing with the sharks, grinning manically, sometimes alongside bikini-clad beach babes.

His account now has more than 8,000 followers and if all this sounds faintly narcissistic, not to mention dangerous, Sudal insists he’s “very conservation-minded” and always tags the animals before returning them to the ocean after he’s caught them.

Talking about his Instagram fame, he told the New York Observer: “It’s so funny seeing what people are into. For example, the most likes I’ve ever gotten was [a picture of] this puffed-out, tennis ball size puffer fish. Really? I’m here posting 400-pound bull sharks!”

Sudal, who says he keeps his strength up guzzling down a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream every day, first became famous two years ago when video of him dragging a shark ashore went viral, garnering an estimated 2.5 million views.

Sudal says he has reeled in 88 sharks this year alone.

His exploits come as the US has suffered a spate of recent shark attacks including two separate attacks in North Carolina on the same day in which a teenage boy and a 12-year-old girl both had their arms bitten off.