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PORT DOUGLAS, Australia (11 Dec 2005) — A spear fisherman has escaped with a gashed arm after fending off one shark only to be mauled from behind by another in a frenzied attack off Queensland’s far north.
Melbourne charter boat operator Glenn Simpson, 44, is nursing his badly wounded left arm which required dozens of stitches after the attack at a reef off Port Douglas.
Mr Simpson was spear fishing with his 15-year-old son Luke when the attack happened early Sunday.
“I had one come straight in my face – I punched him with my left arm to get him out of my face,” Mr Simpson told the Ten Network.
“And as I did that I was thinking I got rid of him and another one came from behind and grabbed my right arm.”
With his boat 60 metres away, Mr Simpson, who was bleeding heavily, told his son to leave him.
But his son refused and instead helped his father back to the boat.
“I ignored him. I stayed with him all the way back to the boat,” Luke told the Cairns Post.
“I’m happy that I stayed with Dad.”
The feeding frenzy began after Luke speared a trout.
“After that they started harassing me and dad a bit,” Luke said.
And then, “just out of nowhere, it was just like shark city,” Mr Simpson told the Ten Network.
“It was like something out of a movie,” he said.
“I consider myself very lucky, you know, especially with the mood the sharks were in.”
The Simpsons have vowed to continue spearfishing but admit they will be more cautious in the water.
A spokeswoman for Cairns Base Hospital said Mr Simpson was in a satisfactory condition.
Another man was killed by a shark a year ago while spear-fishing at a reef close to the area of Sunday’s attack.
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