Saturday 14 February 2004

Swimmer drives shark from water

That was the headline in this article from the ABC :
A man has survived a shark attack on the New South Wales central coast and then driven himself to seek treatment with the shark still attached to his leg.
Luke Tresoglavic from Lake Macquarie says he was swimming near Caves Beach on Tuesday when a wobbegong shark latched on to his leg.
"I just instantly grabbed hold of it with both hands as hard as I could to stop it shaking," he said.
"I just realised I had to swim in like that, hanging on to it.
"Once I got on to shore, a couple of people tried to help me but I could not remove it, it was stuck there.
"So I got up into my car and then drove to the clubhouse and luckily the guys down there had a clue what to do."
Surf lifesavers removed the 60 centimetre shark by hosing it with fresh water.
...as you do.
A Wobbegong has peg-like teeth, anyone who's been attacked by one looks as if they've had a fight with a sewiing-machine. But as Sharks go, they're much less dangerous than most.
A mate of mine had a similar experience with a pack of metre-long sharks - the dangerous (as in "biting chunks out of you" rather than puncturing ) variety. He walked out of the water with two of them still attached (he'd already killed one), and disposed of them both with his fishing spear. Not a lot worse than really bad dog bites, so he said.

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