Shark spat diver because he tasted bad

SYDNEY: A shark that bit down on an Australian diver's head and half-swallowed him probably mistook the man for a seal and may have spat him out because he tasted bad, experts said on Wednesday.

Abalone diver Eric Nerhus is lucky to be alive after a three-meter (10-foot) shark, believed to be a great white, trapped him in its powerful jaws, crushing his face-mask, breaking his nose and lacerating his torso, they said.

Nerhus's head, left arm and torso were inside the shark's mouth when he used his free arm to punch the shark and stab it in the eye with his abalone chisel until it released him, witnesses and officials said.

But experts said the fish probably mistook the diver for one of its regular snacks, a seal, and some said the big fish may have been disappointed with its unappetising catch.

"Normally they feed on seals and things like that so it's bitten in on this guy thinking he's a seal," said Sydney Aquarium shark specialist Grant Willis.

'(He) didn't taste anything like a seal - sort of a bit bony and horrible and nothing like a seal at all - so (it) possibly spat (him) back out," he said.

The diver was wearing a black wetsuit, which specialists say make sharks confuse humans for seals but which do little to enhance the flavour of their unwitting prey.

Shark experts marvelled in Nerhus's miraculous and extremely narrow escape from the jaws of one of nature's great predators, also known as 'white death'. 

"He's had a run-in with one of the ocean's most formidable predators and he's lived to tell the story, so he's a very, very lucky man," Willis told Nine Network television.

But Willis and other experts also said that accounts of the attack showed that fighting back against a shark could save the lives of victims.

"There's also the story that I have heard that he fought this thing off, so there's a lot to be said for punching them (sharks) in the nose or poking them in the eye. It certainly would work," Willis said.   

Nerhus was protected from the worst of the shark's bite by a lead-lined weight vest and reinforced goggles, but suffered severe cuts and had blood pouring from deep wounds to his head, chest and back.   

He was flown to hospital where he was treated for blood loss and shock after surfacing off the town of Cape Howe to be pulled aboard a boat by his son Mark.

"He was unbelievably lucky. Having the presence of mind to poke a shark in the eye is extraordinary," shark expert and documentary maker Ben Cropp told Sky News.

"It's a one-in-a-million that you would have that chance," he added in an interview with the Seven Network.

But experts also called on authorities not to hunt down sharks off the coast of the eastern state of New South Wales, where the attack occurred on Tuesday morning.

"It always flares up every time there is a shark attack. We're going into their world. It's still extremely rare for anyone to be attacked, let alone killed, by a shark," said Willis.

"Be aware that you are taking a risk, but you've got way more chance of dying in your car on your way to the beach than you ever are of being eaten by a shark in the water," he said.