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A DIVER who escaped a great white's jaws feared the shark would take his legs as it circled him during his slow ascent in bloodstained water.
Eric Nerhus, 41, was pulled safely onto a boat by his son after escaping the crushing darkness of the shark's mouth, after it half-swallowed him, head first, yesterday.
The professional abalone diver, despite a broken nose and cuts to his torso, was well enough to sit up in his hospital bed today and tell his miraculous survival tale.
Mr Nerhus said he spent two minutes inside the shark's mouth, without his air supply, and with his head being crushed as the white pointer's teeth rasped across his lead vest.
The father of two said he took a momentary chance, eight metres below the surface, to wriggle free of the creature as it started a frightening, threshing motion.
The great white paused and opened its mouth when Mr Nerhus jabbed its eye with an abalone chisel held in his one free arm.
Regaining his air regulator, Mr Nerhus "ascended very slowly and tried to be calm" after the shock of being attacked.
"Even though I didn't have my goggles I could see it quite clearly because it was that close to me," he told the Nine Network today.
"It was just circling around my flippers, round in round in tight circles.
"The big round black eye, five inches wide, was staring straight into my face with just not one hint of fear, of any boat, or any human, or any other animal in the sea.
"They have just got no fear, those sharks."
Surrounded by blood, he was pulled out of the water by his son.
"Just before I got out of the water it was just coming up under my legs again, so I'm sure it would've probably bit my legs off on the next one and Mark would've lost me, I'd say."
Shark experts have marvelled at the miraculous escape from the jaws of the white pointer, which they say probably thought he was a seal.
Mr Nerhus described the three to four-metre shark as a masterful, perfectly designed killer.
But he holds no animosity toward the creature.
"I realise it obviously mistook me at first for its natural prey, which would have been possibly a seal," he said.
"I couldn't think of a worse way to go than to end up as fish food.
"And that's why I fought back too, because I was determined I didn't want to go like that. It's a very undignified way to go.
"I like my life too much. I've got a very nice family and I enjoy their company too much.
"I didn't want to lose my life that way.
"I'm just very blessed that it worked out for me in the way it did. It just wasn't my time to go."
Mr Nerhus said he had dived the abalone spot off Cape Howe on the New South Wales south coast hundreds of times before.
The thought of being killed by a shark hasn't put him off diving and he's already planning his return to the water.
His teenage children are against it, but his wife Tracey says she will leave the decision up to him.
Friend and fellow diver Dennis Luobikis said Mr Nerhus was the first professional abalone diver he knew to have survived a white pointer attack.
Shark specialist and documentary film-maker Ben Cropp commended Mr Nerhus for his quick thinking in managing to free a hand and fight off the predator, a "one-in-a-million" chance.
Sydney Aquarium shark expert Grant Willis labelled him a "very lucky man".
"He's had a run-in with one of the ocean's most formidable predators and he's lived to tell the story," Mr Willis said.
Mr Willis said calls for a shark cull or the hunting down the offending animal would be an over-reaction.
Michael Kennedy, from the Humane Society International agreed, saying great whites were a protected species.
At no time had the victims of recent shark attacks or their families called for the killing of sharks, Mr Kennedy added.
Mr Nerhus joins Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver and Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton on the Miller Group's "crisis management" books.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21112436-2,00.html?from=public_rss
Eric Nerhus, 41, was pulled safely onto a boat by his son after escaping the crushing darkness of the shark's mouth, after it half-swallowed him, head first, yesterday.
The professional abalone diver, despite a broken nose and cuts to his torso, was well enough to sit up in his hospital bed today and tell his miraculous survival tale.
Mr Nerhus said he spent two minutes inside the shark's mouth, without his air supply, and with his head being crushed as the white pointer's teeth rasped across his lead vest.
The father of two said he took a momentary chance, eight metres below the surface, to wriggle free of the creature as it started a frightening, threshing motion.
The great white paused and opened its mouth when Mr Nerhus jabbed its eye with an abalone chisel held in his one free arm.
Regaining his air regulator, Mr Nerhus "ascended very slowly and tried to be calm" after the shock of being attacked.
"Even though I didn't have my goggles I could see it quite clearly because it was that close to me," he told the Nine Network today.
"It was just circling around my flippers, round in round in tight circles.
"The big round black eye, five inches wide, was staring straight into my face with just not one hint of fear, of any boat, or any human, or any other animal in the sea.
"They have just got no fear, those sharks."
Surrounded by blood, he was pulled out of the water by his son.
"Just before I got out of the water it was just coming up under my legs again, so I'm sure it would've probably bit my legs off on the next one and Mark would've lost me, I'd say."
Shark experts have marvelled at the miraculous escape from the jaws of the white pointer, which they say probably thought he was a seal.
Mr Nerhus described the three to four-metre shark as a masterful, perfectly designed killer.
But he holds no animosity toward the creature.
"I realise it obviously mistook me at first for its natural prey, which would have been possibly a seal," he said.
"I couldn't think of a worse way to go than to end up as fish food.
"And that's why I fought back too, because I was determined I didn't want to go like that. It's a very undignified way to go.
"I like my life too much. I've got a very nice family and I enjoy their company too much.
"I didn't want to lose my life that way.
"I'm just very blessed that it worked out for me in the way it did. It just wasn't my time to go."
Mr Nerhus said he had dived the abalone spot off Cape Howe on the New South Wales south coast hundreds of times before.
The thought of being killed by a shark hasn't put him off diving and he's already planning his return to the water.
His teenage children are against it, but his wife Tracey says she will leave the decision up to him.
Friend and fellow diver Dennis Luobikis said Mr Nerhus was the first professional abalone diver he knew to have survived a white pointer attack.
Shark specialist and documentary film-maker Ben Cropp commended Mr Nerhus for his quick thinking in managing to free a hand and fight off the predator, a "one-in-a-million" chance.
Sydney Aquarium shark expert Grant Willis labelled him a "very lucky man".
"He's had a run-in with one of the ocean's most formidable predators and he's lived to tell the story," Mr Willis said.
Mr Willis said calls for a shark cull or the hunting down the offending animal would be an over-reaction.
Michael Kennedy, from the Humane Society International agreed, saying great whites were a protected species.
At no time had the victims of recent shark attacks or their families called for the killing of sharks, Mr Kennedy added.
Mr Nerhus joins Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver and Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton on the Miller Group's "crisis management" books.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21112436-2,00.html?from=public_rss
