WATCH: Young Man Strips Down to His Undies, Saves Juvenile Great White Shark in the California Surf

Viral video emerged this week that captured a young fisherman wading in his underwear into the pounding Southern California surf to wrestle a juvenile great white shark that washed up on the beach after he inadvertently hooked the protected species.

Watch:

Kevin Phan, 20, was fishing at about 9 a.m. local time Wednesday from the Hermosa Beach pier, when, after a long fight with a heavy catch, the responsible angler realized a great white was on the other end of his line — a species off limits for fishing along the California coast, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Waves washed the juvenile shark onto the beach.

“The next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half naked, stripped down to his underwear, and was in the water trying to get the hook out,” local resident Alexandra Garry explained to the Times.

In footage captured by Garry, Phan rushes toward the shark in his boxers, as onlookers watch from the pier, taking a pair of scissors with him in an attempt to free the flailing young predator.

It was no easy task, with four-foot-high surf slamming both the shark and its rescuer, making it difficult for him to cut the line. As he finally does and tosses it, a lifeguard truck pulls up on the beach in the background and he calls for assistance.

The guard approaches but then heads back to the truck as Phan pulls the shark by its tail up the sand then turns it around, taking it back to the surf. When the lifeguard returns they both push it into the surf, filling its gills with water, as a shark needs to be moving to breathe.

It swims away and Phan holds up his arms in victory as onlookers cheer in the background.

“It was a little bit scary, because I have never dealt with a white shark before and the teeth were a bit intimidating,” Phan told the Times.

He said he has been fishing for five years but was not targeting that kind of shark and knew it was protected under the state’s fishing restrictions.

Phan reportedly suffered minor cuts and scrapes but was otherwise ok.

Juvenile great white sharks pose a low risk to swimmers, studies by the California State University at Long Beach have shown.

They gather near the shore to feed on small fish.

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more