{"id":565127,"date":"2026-03-26T07:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565127\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T07:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:09:10","slug":"amateur-lobster-fisher-escapes-attack-by-3-5m-great-white-shark-off-cape-jaffa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565127\/","title":{"rendered":"Amateur lobster fisher escapes attack by 3.5m great white shark off Cape Jaffa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran amateur rock lobster fisher Luke Kuhn has lived up to his nickname “Lucky Luke” after surviving a great white shark biting onto his swim fin yesterday and dragging him along the ocean floor.<\/p>\n

Mr Kuhn, along with his diving buddy Daniel Field, set out to dive for lobster at a local spot they know well at Cape Jaffa on the Limestone Coast in South Australia.<\/p>\n

The pair noticed a seal hanging around the boat when they anchored, but did not think much of it.<\/p>\n

Mr Kuhn descended to about 12 metres, where visibility was poor \u2014 less than 2 metres \u2014 and 10 minutes into his dive “all hell broke loose”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A juvenile white shark, sighted separately, near Cape Jaffa, on SA’s Limestone Coast, on January 23. (Supplied: Aaron Connell)<\/p>\n

“I was reaching under a shelf for a cray, then all of a sudden I’m getting dragged backwards along the ocean floor by something powerful, very powerful,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The shark had my fin. He was pulling, I was pulling.<\/p>\n

“I looked over my shoulder, and my left foot was in his mouth. I was right next to his head.<\/p>\n

“I managed to get my foot out of the fin and I swam back to my spot to get my loop in case he came back.”<\/p>\n

The shark then surfaced, barrel-rolled and seemed to be heading back for round two, but Mr Kuhn managed to elude it, making his way to the surface to alert his dive buddy.<\/p>\n

“I was in a bit of shock trying to work out what happened, but made my way to the top and just yelled to my mate to come get me,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Flinders University experts have tested wetsuit material to help save lives. (Supplied: Sam Cahir)<\/p>\n

“He was at my side within seconds, and said my face was pure white.”<\/p>\n

Back onboard, the pair reported the encounter to Shark Watch SA.<\/p>\n

“Within hours, my cousin in Switzerland is calling me. The story has gone everywhere, and all my mates who call me ‘Lucky Luke’ now have a new reason to do so,” Mr Kuhn said.<\/p>\n

Bite-resistant wetsuit on order<\/p>\n

Mr Kuhn said he planned to wait a few weeks before getting back in the water and would not do so until his shark-bite-resistant wetsuit had arrived.<\/p>\n

The $1,500 suit, designed in Australia with testing conducted by Flinders University, was developed in 2017 as a response to the regional increase in shark-human interactions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Luke Kuhn and his dive buddy were fishing for lobster at Cape Jaffa when the attack occurred. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

This latest incident follows local man and diver Jason Wallace surviving a close encounter with a great white shark<\/a> off the Limestone Coast in late January.<\/p>\n

Shark Watch SA managing director Anton Covino said conditions were prime for predatory behaviour from the species.<\/p>\n

But he said the increased sightings reported by Shark Watch SA were based on contributed observations from marine frequenters, making it biased data and not a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Anton Covino says an increase in shark sightings does not necessarily mean shark numbers have risen. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“This year alone, I have received more sightings empirically of white sharks, but that simply could be because Shark Watch is on the rise in the media at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But who’s to say that 10 or 15 years ago, we weren’t having many, many more encounters, and back then they just simply weren’t being reported?”<\/p>\n

Mr Covino said divers understood the risk of their pursuits, especially when 5 kilometres offshore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran amateur rock lobster fisher Luke Kuhn has lived up to his nickname “Lucky Luke” after surviving a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,278255,278261,278260,17552,128,278259,278257,278258,278256,227558,1124,338],"class_list":["post-565127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bite-resistant-wetsuit","tag-cape-jaffa","tag-cape-jaffa-sa","tag-great-white-shark","tag-science","tag-shark-attack-australia","tag-shark-attacks-2026","tag-shark-attacks-sa","tag-shark-bite-resistant-wetsuit","tag-shark-watch","tag-south-australia","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}