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A man who was bitten three times by a shark at a popular Australian tourist spot before driving himself to hospital has recalled fearing it “could be the end” for him.
Tour guide Lee Berryman, 57, was bitten twice by the shark while surfing in South Australia’s D’Estrees Bay, in an area known as The Sewer at Kangaroo Island.
“I’d just caught a wave, [was] paddling back out… and I felt something chomping on me,” he told Australia’s 7News.
After the shark latched onto his left thigh, he began to fight back, he said.
“I’m on a kneeboard, everything’s close. His head’s right there. I’m shouting, showing my teeth, punching him,” he said.
Mr Berryman began swimming back to shore after the shark finally let go. But at this point he feared it “could be the end, because I had to paddle to the rocks”, he said in a separate interview with 9 News.
The shark is suspected to be a large bronzer whaler, according to News.com.au.
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A bronze whaler shark, the variety believed to be responsible for the attack (Creative Commons / Robert Nyland)
“It probably only took me four minutes to get to the rocks, it felt like half an hour because he kept coming back. He actually had three chomps, three different lines of bites, slowly working his way to my a***,” he said.
“I could feel that he had bit me, I knew I was bitten.”
At one point, he recalled that a seal tried to hide itself behind him as a “safety device”, he told the channel.
“That’s when I felt the shark again. The bite marks went down in deep in between some stuff.”
Once in hospital, Mr Berryman needed 50 stitches. “I wasn’t pouring out blood … but it was coming through the holes in my wetsuit,” he told 7 News.
Shark Watch South Australia said the incident happened on Tuesday at around 1:37pm local time.
“Public report to SWSA stating a surfer was on their way to hospital after receiving 2x shark bites from a Bronze Whaler that was chasing seals around the bay,” the organisation wrote on its social media.
Bronzer whaler sharks are found in coastal areas and offshore in South Australia. They can weigh up to 300kg and grow up to 3.3 metres in length.