A British man has recalled how he was attacked by a Great White Shark whilst doing a night swim from Catalina Island in the USA, revealing how he managed to survive
A British man has described being attacked by a Great White Shark (stock)(Image: Getty)
A British man has described what it was like to be attacked by a Great White Shark that came back not once, but three times to attack him.
The man, Chris from London, appeared on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 programme on February 5 to discuss the matter after Jeremy asked listeners if anyone had been attacked by shark.
Responding with one of his own terrifying experience, Chris described how his attack came as he was undertaking a night ocean swim in the USA. He said that he first felt the shark bite his hand, before it swam around and tried to bite his leg.
He said: “I was swimming from Catalina Island which is 20 miles off the Los Angeles coast, attempting to cross that channel, it’s one of seven ocean swims at night when the wind is depleted.
“About two and a half hours into my swim, about five miles off the Catalina coast, I felt a bite to my hand and then I managed to drag my hand out of something sharp.
A Great White Shark (stock)(Image: Getty)
“I thought ‘Oh this isn’t right’ and then communicated to my support vessel, and they didn’t know what was really going on, and then I got grabbed on the leg and felt a very, very sharp tug and some very sharp teeth and had to extricate myself from the mouth of a Great White Shark.”
When asked how he freed himself from the Great White Shark’s grasp, Chris replied: “I kicked it, in simple terms. I gave it a bit of a hoof with my left foot and it then came off my foot and then I swam to the back of the main support vessel and indicated to the crew that I’d been bitten.
“I knew what it was. Then they shone a big floodlight behind me and then saw the wonderful beast coming back again for third helpings, at which point I was told to get out of the water. “
Jeremy then pressed Chris on whether there was anything he would do differently looking back on the incident; to which he replied that he wouldn’t, but he also knew that he had gotten lucky due the size of the shark that attacked him.
Jeremy Vine(Image: Getty Images)
He explained: “No, not really. A lot of people asked me whether it was terrifying and I’d say no. I couldn’t see it because I was swimming in the dark it was a juvenile, so it was a four and a bit foot long from the people in the boat.
“If it had been an adult Great White Shark, then I probably wouldn’t have a foot or a hand, or worse.
“So I was lucky in that respect and it is an area where there are plenty of Great White Sharks, but they’re generally not interested in human beings as a food source. It’s when they’re confused.
“So no, I wouldn’t do anything different. Would I go swimming in the sea again? Yes.”