Great white shark ‘winked at me’ as it bit my leg off, says surfer
The surfer said the shark circled him before biting his leg, and he used a tourniquet and an onlooker’s phone to call for help.
- Surfer and firefighter Mel Ismail lost his right leg below the knee after a shark attacked him at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton on September 14, recounting that the predator appeared to "wink" at him before biting down.
- Initially believing a dolphin hit him, Ismail struggled toward shore as the shark dragged him underwater; he eventually scrambled back to the beach despite losing strength and breath.
- A pair of teenagers came to Ismail's rescue, crafting a tourniquet using a leg rope to stem bleeding, while another bystander called for an ambulance and kept him positive.
- Four days later, 63-year-old swimmer Greg O'Neill was fatally mauled by a large white shark off Sorrento Beach, around 250 miles south of Geraldton; authorities have not identified Ismail's attacker species.
- Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks annually since 2000, while sharks attacking prey roll their eyeballs backward to expose protective white cartilage—not a wink, experts clarify.
26 Articles
26 Articles
Shark attack survivor Mel Ismail recounts his ordeal
As shark attack survivor Mel Ismail fought the predator that severed his leg, he noticed something odd.“I saw its eye ... a big black eye,” Ismail said. “But it was winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.”When the shark swam off
El Vocero de Puerto Rico
Independent EspañolAs Mel Ismail, who survived a shark attack, fought against the predator who slammed his leg, he noticed something strange.
Shark Attack Survivor Says It 'Winked' as It Pulled Him Down
Surfing off Western Australia's coast, firefighter Mel Ismail says he locked eyes with the shark that tore off his lower leg—and sorted to gouge its eye as it draped him under. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he at first thought he'd been bombed by a dolphin at...
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
Australian shark attack survivor says it was 'winking back' at him as he fought it off
The surfer and professional firefighter, who lost his right leg below the knee, looked back on his near-death encounter on Australia's west coast.
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