"The shark blinked at me!" Australian surfer's leg was bitten off, and the aftermath revealed the horrifying moment

An Australian man was attacked by a shark while surfing recently. Although he escaped death, his right foot was bitten off. He disclosed this thrilling experience on the 8th, saying that when he fought back hard, he found the shark "winking" at him. However, the "blinking" he refers to may be a self-protection mechanism when the shark attacks.

The Associated Press reported on the 9th that firefighter Mel Ismail was attacked by a shark while surfing at Glenfield Beach near the town of Geraldton on the west coast of Australia on the 14th of last month, and his right leg was bitten off below the knee. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on the 8th, Ismail recalled this tug-of-war encounter with death. He said that he first saw a pod of about 20 dolphins swimming by, and then was hit by a huge monster. "I thought I was hit by a dolphin at first." Unexpectedly, "something bit me hard and dragged me into the sea" in the next second, and he was shocked to be attacked by a shark.

He described fighting the shark, which seemed to blink at him before biting his leg. "I saw its eye...a big black eye...but it was blinking at me," he said. He managed to poke the shark's eye with his finger as he was bitten and dragged away.

Ismail, who bled profusely after being attacked, managed to ride a wave and push about 20 meters to the shore. Fortunately, before he ran out of energy, he was discovered by another surfer, Shannan Dunn, who helped him climb onto the wave board and return to the beach for medical treatment.

Many sharks, including great whites and makos, do not have eyelids, but when they attack prey, they turn their eyes back into their sockets, exposing a layer of hard white cartilage as a protective measure to avoid eye injuries. Authorities have not identified the species of shark that attacked Ismail.

There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australia this year, one of which occurred four days after Ismail was attacked. A 63-year-old man was attacked and killed by a great white shark in the waters near Perth. According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, since 2000, an average of 2 to 3 people in Australia have been killed by shark attacks every year.