Shark Attack Survivor Describes Jabbing the Predator's Eye to Escape Off Australia

An Australian surfer who lost his right leg below the knee in a shark attack says he jabbed at the animal's eye to try to make it let go before struggling back to shore. Mel Ismail, a professional firefighter, gave his first public account of the Sept. 14 attack in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that aired Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Ismail said strangers on the beach built a tourniquet, called an ambulance and drove him toward medical help. He told the ABC he plans to return to the water as a bodyboarder.

How the attack unfolded at Glenfield Beach

Ismail was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on Australia's west coast. He said he was sitting beyond the surf break when he noticed a pod of about 20 dolphins. Then something large struck him.

He said he first assumed a dolphin had hit him. Moments later, he said, something grabbed him and pulled him under, and he knew it was a shark.

The eye that seemed to wink

Ismail said he saw a big black eye that appeared to wink at him before the shark bit his leg. He said he tried to get his fingers into the eye and push at it while he was being dragged.

The AP noted that many sharks, including white sharks and makos, have no eyelids. When attacking prey, they roll their eyeballs back into their sockets as protection, which exposes a tough layer of white cartilage. That may explain what Ismail described. Authorities have not yet determined which species attacked him.

The rescue

Alone and bleeding beyond the break, Ismail caught a wave that carried him about 20 meters (66 feet) closer to shore. He said he was out of breath and weakening when he saw another surfer, Shannan Dunn, coming down the dunes onto the beach.

Dunn helped Ismail onto his board. Ismail said Dunn's first question was where the shark was. Ismail said he replied that he did not know and had a lot going on.

On the beach, one onlooker made a tourniquet from a leg rope and another phoned for an ambulance. Two teenagers helped Ismail into Dunn's SUV, and they drove along the beach to meet the ambulance. Ismail said people in the vehicle kept him alive and positive by making him laugh, and that he began to feel he would survive.

Why it matters: a year of fatal attacks in Australia

The account comes during a year of serious shark incidents in Australia. Four days after Ismail was attacked, swimmer Greg O'Neill, 63, was killed by a large white shark off Sorrento Beach in Perth's northern suburbs, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Geraldton.

There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year, according to the reports. Three spearfishing divers were killed off the coast over four weeks in May and June. In January, a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after a bull shark mauled him in Sydney Harbor.

For context, the Australian Shark Incident Database, a partnership including Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Flinders University and the New South Wales state government, says the country has averaged between two and three fatal attacks a year since 2000. This year's count is above that average.

Ismail's account also shows how much the outcome of such an attack can depend on bystanders. In his case, a fellow surfer, onlookers using improvised gear and a quick call for an ambulance all played a part in getting him medical care.

Sources: ABC News, The Independent