A 41-year-old surfer who survived a shark attack off Long Island, New York, has recounted “slapping” the predator after it bit his leg.
Shawn Donnelly, of Mastic Beach, said he was lying on his surfboard on Wednesday morning when he was attacked.
“The shark ambushed me,” Mr Donnelly told The New Post in an interview. “I have never been more scared in my entire life…I screamed and flailed.”
He said there was silence around him in the water before the shark – which he suspects was a tiger shark – leapt out of the waves and bit him.
“It came up from the sandbar like a torpedo,” he said. “There was no fish jumping out of the water, no water moving, just quiet then ’bang.’ Next thing I knew the shark knocked me off my board.”
The experienced surfer fought the shark by “slapping” it and managed to get back on his board about 40 feet from the shoreline.
“I was horrified,” he said. “I just slapped the shark once. I hit it, then instantly turned and paddled for the beach.”
Mr Donnelly, who said the shark was still circling him following the attack, paddled as fast as he could to the shoreline, not far from Smith Point County Park in Shirley, Long Island.
The surfer then sought treatment for his wound at a nearby hospital after notifying a park manager of the attack.
It was thought to be the fifth such encounter between people and sharks since 30 June, when a 37-year-old swimmer was bitten on his foot at Jones Beach, USA Today reported.
That was followed by a lifeguard who was bitten during a training exercise at Smith Point Beach on 3 July. As NBC New York reported, the lifeguard was the first person bitten by a shark since 1959 on the beach.
A 49-year-old man from Arizona was also bitten at Long Island’s Seaview Beach later on Wednesday after Mr Donnelly was attacked, the Suffolk County Police Department said.
Suffolk County executive Steve Bellone said at a news briefing that morning that sharks appeared to be coming closer to the shore and humans and that the attacks could be “an indication that what we are looking at is something of a new normal.”, NBC News reported.
Swimmers and surfers have meanwhile been advised to go with a partner and to only use beaches with lifeguards.
