CHUM - Houston's SCUBA Club is the sponsor of the 
driftdiver
Nurse Shark
- First Name
- Wayne
I saw this one on the web this morning
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian abalone diver attacked by a shark on Tuesday told rescuers he was partly swallowed head first by the great white shark but fought his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around his chest.
The 25-year-old diver said he was underwater off Cape Howe near Eden on Australia's southeast coast when the shark attacked.
"He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.
"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said
He believed it was a 9 foot (3 meter) white pointer. He said he fought it off," she said.
Attacks by Great White Sharks are usually fatal due to the massive size of the sharks, which breed in Australia's cold southern waters, and the sheer force of their bites.
Sharks, even Great Whites, are protected in Australia.
Australia has had a number of shark attacks in the past year
In December, a surfer off the southern coast survived an attack with minor injuries, while a 15-year-old boy swimming off a remote southwest beach had his leg bitten.
Last January, a scuba diver off the Western Australian city of Perth survived an attack by a great white shark after fighting it off with his speargun and then his hands.
While a 21-year-old woman died last January after she was attacked by three sharks while swimming off an island on Australia's northeast coast. She lost both forearms and suffered wounds to the legs and torso.
The U.S. state of Florida annually records by far the most shark attacks. Between 1990 and 2005 there were 341 shark attacks off Florida, according to the U.S.-based International Shark Attack File, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm
Over the same period Australia reported 74 attacks, South Africa 72, Brazil 62 and Hawaii 57.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian abalone diver attacked by a shark on Tuesday told rescuers he was partly swallowed head first by the great white shark but fought his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around his chest.
The 25-year-old diver said he was underwater off Cape Howe near Eden on Australia's southeast coast when the shark attacked.
"He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.
"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said
He believed it was a 9 foot (3 meter) white pointer. He said he fought it off," she said.
Attacks by Great White Sharks are usually fatal due to the massive size of the sharks, which breed in Australia's cold southern waters, and the sheer force of their bites.
Sharks, even Great Whites, are protected in Australia.
Australia has had a number of shark attacks in the past year
In December, a surfer off the southern coast survived an attack with minor injuries, while a 15-year-old boy swimming off a remote southwest beach had his leg bitten.
Last January, a scuba diver off the Western Australian city of Perth survived an attack by a great white shark after fighting it off with his speargun and then his hands.
While a 21-year-old woman died last January after she was attacked by three sharks while swimming off an island on Australia's northeast coast. She lost both forearms and suffered wounds to the legs and torso.
The U.S. state of Florida annually records by far the most shark attacks. Between 1990 and 2005 there were 341 shark attacks off Florida, according to the U.S.-based International Shark Attack File, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm
Over the same period Australia reported 74 attacks, South Africa 72, Brazil 62 and Hawaii 57.
