Oregon surfer punched shark in gills to survive
Portland, Oregon: An Oregon trauma nurse who was bitten by a great white shark said he survived the attack by punching the predator in the gills.
Joseph Tanner, 29, was resting his arms on his surfboard, his lower body dangling in the water, when something grabbed his right thigh and pulled him under the waves.
In an instant, Tanner knew he was being attacked by a shark in the chilly waters off the northern Oregon coast and he wondered if he would die, he recalled on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the October 10 attack north of Cannon Beach.
The shark had his leg in its jaw, a bite that would later measure 26 inches from his upper thigh to his ankle, and as Tanner struggled to break free, he remembered that he should try to punch the shark in the nose or poke it in the eye. But when he opened his eyes, there were only gills in front of him.
“I can’t reach the nose and I can’t reach the eyeballs, so I just started hitting the gills,” said the 29-year-old. The shark released him and he screamed a warning to his friends who were surfing about 40 feet away, then began paddling to shore on his board. He was terrified the shark was following him, tracking him by the blood streaming from his mangled leg. Friends later told him he paddled about 200 yards, a five-minute ordeal, before catching a wave and riding it in for the last 40 yards, he said.