Aussie fights off giant shark
2009-10-31 11:37
Sydney - An Australian kayaker spoke of his terrifying escape from a great white shark Saturday after it lunged at his canoe, capsizing him into the water.
Rhys Gadsden, 27, said the four-metre beast latched onto his kayak with its massive jaws before headbutting it from below, tossing him into Portland harbour, west of Melbourne, during his Friday morning paddle.
"I grabbed my oar and I was hitting him in the head five or six times, he was headbutting me and knocking me over, and took me in the water with it," Gadsden told commercial television.
He spent a "freaky" 16 minutes treading water, frozen with terror, before a passing boat came to his rescue.
"I didn't know where it (the shark) had been, I didn't know whether it was going to come back and I didn't know what to do really, I didn't want to splash around and make it come back," he said.
"It was big, it was dark eyes. Scary, evil. I never want to do that again."
Great white sharks are the world's largest known predatory fish, and can grow up to six metres long and weigh 2,240 kilograms.
There was a spate of shark attacks in Sydney during the southern hemisphere summer earlier this year, including the savaging of a navy diver near the Opera House.
A surfer lost his hand in an attack just 36 hours later at Bondi Beach.
According to records, 194 people have been killed in shark strikes in Australia over the past two centuries, but researchers are quick to point out that more people die every year from bee stings and lightning strikes.
- AFP