Shark attack 'worst nightmare'

2005-12-26 20:27

Seaside - A surfer says he reacted on instinct when he punched a great white shark that grabbed his leg near the northern Oregon coast.

Brian Anderson expects to make a full recovery from the lacerations he suffered on his ankle and calf. And the attack isn't going to stop him from surfing.

"Oh yeah, I'll go back out. Eventually," he said on Monday on ABC's Good Morning America.

Anderson, 31, was at a popular surfing spot near Tillamook Head, south of Seaside, when he felt something grab his leg on Saturday.

He turned and saw the shark, "and I saw the nose of it and I just punched it in the nose, right by the eye, as quickly as I could - that's all I could think to do.

"After I did that, it let go."

He said he learned from television shows including the Discovery Channel's Shark Week that a shark's nose is its most sensitive area.

"As a surfer, it's your worst nightmare to get attacked by one of those things, so you think about it but you don't really know what to do until it really happens.

I just connected on instinct and just did it."

He swam to shore and another surfer helped him put a tourniquet on his leg. He was treated at Providence Seaside Hospital.

Witnesses said the shark was about 3m long, said fire department chief Joe Dotson.

He said it was the first shark attack off Seaside in his 26 years with the department.

- AP