you were body boarding off of the coast of kauai back in1997. >> early morning, gone out with some buddies, paddled out. the next wave came, paddled for it. a large tiger shark came up, grabbed on to me, did the rag doll thing. i didn't feel any pain, a lot of pressure. it was over really fast and i went to the beach, my friend took my leg, main a tourniquet. a week in the hospital, got a prosthetic, and back out surfing. >> took you a few months. why protect this vicious predator as we know them to be? >> well, aer the attack, i was just going through a bunch of stuff a the pew environment group had contacted me and asked me about shark conservation and gave me some numbers and stuff and figures and statistics. i was blown away. 70 million sharks a year. i had no idea this was going on. i felt compelled in my posion to do something and turn a negative in to positive. and it's such an ocean-based thing. sharks are crucia >> you had a similar experience in the bahamas. you make the point that this is what sharks do, right? they're living on their instinctive nature, right? >> yeah, correct.