Shark Attack Survivor Recounts Fighting Off Predator by Eye Jab
Mel Ismail, a professional firefighter, detailed his harrowing encounter with a shark off the coast of Western Australia, where he lost his leg.
Australian shark attack survivor Mel Ismail said he fought off the marine predator that severed his leg by jabbing at its eye, a desperate act that allowed him to reach shore. The professional firefighter was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia’s west coast on September 14 when the attack occurred.
Ismail described the moment of the attack in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp., his first public account of the incident. He was sitting in the water when he saw a pod of dolphins and then felt something large strike him. Initially thinking it was a dolphin, Ismail quickly realized he had been grabbed and pulled underwater by a shark.
"I saw its eye… a big black eye," Ismail recounted. "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."
While the species of shark has not been confirmed, many shark species, such as great white and mako sharks, do not have eyelids. When attacking, they often roll their eyeballs backward to protect them.
Alone and bleeding, Ismail managed to catch a wave that carried him approximately 66 feet closer to shore. It was then that he spotted surfer Shannan Dunn, who came to his aid and helped him onto his board. Dunn then assisted Ismail back to the beach, where onlookers created a tourniquet using a leg rope and called for an ambulance.
Ismail was transported to meet an ambulance, recounting that the presence of others helped keep him positive during the ordeal. He expressed a desire to return to the water, intending to bodyboard.
The attack on Ismail occurred shortly before another fatal shark incident in Western Australia. On September 18, Greg O’Neill, a 63-year-old swimmer, was fatally attacked by a shark off Sorrento Beach in Perth, approximately 250 miles south of Geraldton.
Australia has experienced a number of shark fatalities in recent years. Five fatal shark attacks have been recorded this year, including three spearfishing divers killed in May and June, and a 12-year-old boy who died in January after being mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. Historically, Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks annually since 2000, according to data from the Australian Shark Incident Database.