Surfer’s view of sharks changes

Attack survivor defends fish

POMPANO BEACH — Forty years ago, “Jaws” thrilled Al Brenneka as much as any other moviegoer, but he figured his chances of encountering a shark in the ocean were slim to none.

Until he went surfing and nearly lost his life.

In the decades since, he’s come to accept his membership in the small community of shark-attack survivors and changed his feelings toward the animal that bit him.

More than a year after the summer 1975 debut of Steven Spielberg’s thriller, Brenneka was 19 and rode one of the best waves of his life into shore at Delray Beach. As he paddled back out, something tugged on his right arm.

His arm broke the surface with a yellow face more than a foot wide attached and gnawing into his elbow.

The lemon shark wouldn’t let go until he stuck his knee into its gills. Amid his own screaming and the sound of his blood gushing from the wound, Brenneka realized how alone he was.

A couple of dozen other surfers had fled to the beach when some sharks darted beneath their boards.

He lost consciousness at the shoreline. The average adult has about 10 pints of blood in his body, and Brenneka needed more than twice that amount to stop the bleeding. He was in a coma for more than three days, and doctors feared he would have brain damage if he woke up at all.

He lost his right arm at the elbow. He still wears a sock over the stump to pro- tect the closed wounds.

For years after his attack, he thought the victims in the movie had it easy with their quick deaths; not long, painful recoveries like his.

“To be hunted and stalked, and then have something try to consume a part of your body, it sends a trigger in your brain that changes everything,” he said.

He resumed diving and fishing, and his prey included small sharks he could turn into dinner for skin his grafts that

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