10/09/2026 01:36:00
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10/09 01:33 CDT Australian shark attack survivor says predator was 'winking
back' at him as he fought it off
Australian shark attack survivor says predator was 'winking back' at him as he
fought it off
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --- As shark attack survivor Mel Ismail fought the
predator that severed his leg, he noticed something odd:
"I saw its eye ... a big black eye," Ismail said. "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, he managed to struggle back to shore, the surfer and
professional firefighter said in an interview that revealed new details of his
near-death encounter.
He was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia's west coast when
he was attacked on Sept. 14. He lost his right leg below the knee.
Ismail recalled in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview broadcast on
Thursday that he was resting when he spotted a pod of about 20 dolphins before
being hit by something big. It's the first time he has spoken publicly about
the attack.
"I thought I got hit by a dolphin, initially," Ismail said.
"And suddenly --- bang --- something grabbed me and dragged me down into the
water. And I knew it was a shark," Ismail added.
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 backward 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 on to the beach.
Dunn went to Ismail's rescue, helping the shark victim on to 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.
A pair of teenagers helped Ismail climb into Dunn's SUV and they drove along
the beach to meet an ambulance.
"I had a heap of people laughing, keeping me alive, keeping me positive in the
back," Ismail said.
"I gave a few knuckles to the people there, because I was feeling good," Ismail
added. "I started to feel like I (was) going to make it."
Four days after Ismail was attacked, 63-year-old swimmer Greg O'Neill was
fatally mauled by a large white shark. O'Neill was attacked off Sorrento Beach
in Perth's northern suburbs, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of
Geraldton.
Ismail said he intends to return to the surf as a bodyboarder.
There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year.
Three spearfishing divers were killed by sharks off the Australian coast in
four weeks over May and June. In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital
days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.
Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks a year since
2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership
including Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the
New South Wales state government.
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