Nantucket beachgoers risk lives to give stranded shark second chance at life: 'I felt helpless'

Liza Phillips said she was tossing a football with her dad and brother at Low Beach in Siasconset when her father noticed the beached creature in the distance.

SIASCONSET, Mass. – A stranded great white shark that washed ashore on the island of Nantucket was given a second chance at life thanks to concerned beachgoers who managed to push it back into the ocean.

Liza Phillips said she was tossing a football with her dad and brother at Low Beach in Siasconset when her father noticed the beached creature in the distance. 

"I immediately grabbed my phone and started sprinting toward the animal," Phillips said.

Phillips managed to capture the shark's struggle on video as it floundered in the surf near the shore.

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"We were all in shock watching this beautiful beast struggling and dying, full of sandburn rashes," she said. "I felt helpless watching it flounder in the surf, but I remember looking back and seeing a friend of ours take off his shirt and I knew we both had to step in and help the shark back to sea."

Her video then continues to show Phillips and the man entering the water and gently pushing the shark away from the shore.

In the background of the video, a woman can be heard encouraging the pair, "Give him a push!"

The shark eventually swam away and into deeper water.

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