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Old 01-23-2007, 03:21 PM   #1
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Default Diver in miracle shark escape

A diver who was swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark has told how he miraculously escaped its clutches.

Australian Eric Nerhus, 41, was with his 25-year-old son and other divers when the three-metre long beast attacked.

He suffered a broken nose and numerous lacerations caused by bite marks.

Mr Nerhus fought desperately to get out of the shark mouth, pushing a chisel into its head.

Local diver Michael Mashado said: "It was black. He didn't see it coming, but he felt the bite and then started getting shaken, and that's when he knew he was in the mouth of the shark."

Another friend Dennis Luobikis said: "He was actually bitten by the head...the shark swallowed his head."

He added: "The brunt of the bite was taken by his lead-weight vest. Its all over your torso. Eric said to me at the wharf that his weight vest saved him."

Mr Nerhus fought frantically to free himself from the shark's jaws and was eventually pulled back aboard his boat by his son.

Mr Luobikis added: "He pushed his abalone chisel into its head while it was biting and it let him go and swam away.

"Eric is a tough boy, he's super fit. But I would say that would test anyone's resolve, being a fish lunch."


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Old 01-23-2007, 06:37 PM   #2
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One lucky guy to escape. The report in the U.S. was he was in serious condition due to blood loss from the torso. They also showed shoots of his wet suit and you could clearly see the bite marks, very scary. I wish him well in his recovery.
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Old 01-25-2007, 09:20 AM   #3
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I took this report from Divernet:

"Great white nightmare
An Australian diver is reported to have escaped a great white shark attack, after being taken head-first and enveloped down to the chest.

The nightmarish experience happened to Eric Nerhus, 41, who was diving for abalone at Cape Howe, in south-eastern Australia. A buddy, Dennis Luobikis, witnessed the incident.

Strictly speaking, the shark's behaviour was not so much an attack as a "taste". In proper attack mode, Nerhus would not have lived. Instead, he was subjected to a relatively light, testing grip, used if the shark is unsure whether to take a prey.

Luobikis told reporters that the shark, estimated at about 3m long, "swallowed" Nerhus's head, so that his mask was crushed and his nose broken. The shark then readjusted its grip to hold Nerhus by the torso. He reported being in this position for some two minutes, his air supply gone.

Nerhus was eventually able to use his free arm to hit out at the shark's head with his abalone chisel. The shark released its grip enough for Nerhus to struggle free.

He and Luobikis were able to ascend to their cover boat, crewed by Nerhus's son, who described the trauma of seeing his father surface in a "big pool of blood".

During the slow ascent and up to the moment he regained the boat, Nerhus said he could see the shark still circling tightly around his fins. He feared that it would take his legs.

Nerhus, who remained conscious, was hauled aboard, rushed ashore and airlifted to hospital, suffering from blood loss and shock. After initial treatment for his broken nose and cuts to his torso, his condition was described as serious but stable."

One lucky feller. I wonder if the shark had a headache in the morning?
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Old 02-15-2007, 11:36 AM   #4
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Have you ever got something stuck in your teeth? When you got it out didn't you look at it for a moment? I'm sure that was why the shark was still circling
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Old 02-15-2007, 02:20 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glynneco
Have you ever got something stuck in your teeth? When you got it out didn't you look at it for a moment? I'm sure that was why the shark was still circling
ROFLMAO!!
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