Shark attack survivor says predator 'winked' at him as he fought it off
Shark attack survivor Mel Ismail, who fought off the predator that severed his leg, has revealed new details of his near-death encounter.
In his first interview since the attack, he said he noticed something odd: “I saw its eye … a big black eye. But it was winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.”
When the shark swam off, the surfer and professional firefighter managed to struggle back to shore.
He said he had been surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia’s west coast when he was attacked on September 14. He lost his right leg below the knee.
Ismail recalled that he was resting when he spotted a pod of about 20 dolphins before being hit by something big.
“I thought I got hit by a dolphin, initially,” Ismail told Australia’s ABC.
“And suddenly — bang — something grabbed me and dragged me down into the water. And I knew it was a shark.”
Ismail said it looked like the shark winked at him before it bit his leg.
Many sharks, including the white shark and mako shark, do not have eyelids, but when attacking prey, they roll their eyeballs backwards into their sockets as a protective measure, exposing a tough layer of white cartilage. Authorities have yet to determine the species of shark that attacked Ismail.
Alone and bleeding at the back of the surf break, Ismail caught a wave that took him about 20 meters (66 feet) closer to shore.
Ismail said he was out of breath and losing strength when he spotted surfer Shannan Dunn coming down the dunes onto the beach.
Dunn went to Ismail’s rescue, helping the shark victim onto Dunn’s board. Ismail described Dunn as having “eyes like saucers.”
“The first thing he (Dunn) said to me is, ‘Where’s the shark?’” Ismail said. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve got a bit going on here.'”
Once they returned to the beach, an onlooker crafted a tourniquet for Ismail using a leg rope and another onlooker phoned for an ambulance.
