Teen catches endangered shark with bare hands (VIDEO)

Whether it’s brave or stupid, we’re not sure, but this Washington teen pulled off the impressive feat of diving headfirst into the sea and catching a shark with his bare hands. The stunt hasn’t gone down well with everyone, though.

Alex Winn, 19, executed the daring act in Liberty Bay, Washington, on Wednesday evening, The Seattle Times reports.

Video footage Winn posted to his Instagram account shows him standing on a dock as dogfish swim in the water below. Winn then dives headfirst into the sea and grabs one of the sharks with his hands.

The fish struggles to break out of his grasp but he manages to sling it up on the dock as he clambers out of the water.

“Crikey, mate, I just caught this little bugger,” he says, channeling Aussie naturalist Steve Irwin, while posing with his catch.

“I let it go right after the vid and made sure he swam off,” Winn wrote in his Instagram post. He has still drawn some negative reaction online and from wildlife experts, however.

Davy Lowry, of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said: “It was a silly thing to do.”

He told The Seattle Times that the spiny dogfish, which is part of the shark family, was recently listed as an endangered species.

They are known to inhabit the Pacific coastline and eat squid and herring.

Winn’s Instagram post has already been viewed nearly 18,000 times and copies of the video have racked up more than 500,000 views.

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