Shark Bites Man

[mrmoshe]

Shark bites man

A MAN lost two litres of blood from a gash in his leg after an encounter with a shark off Darwin Harbour.

Geoff Johnson, 50, needed 30 stitches in his right leg after his run-in with the 1.8m reef shark.

He hooked the shark while out fishing with his partner, Jacky Lamb.

Mr Johnson, of Wanguri, reeled in the fish and tried to grab it by the tail so he could free the hook from its mouth about 3pm on Sunday.

But the shark fought back, biting Mr Johnson on his right knee.

The fishing hook then became stuck in his leg, and as the shark thrashed around, the hook ripped a huge gash in the his leg.

"I just pulled it on board and thrashed around a little bit and the hook sliced my leg," he said.

"The hook did more damage than the shark."

Mr Johnson said blood started gushing out of the huge gash below his knee.

"I told Jacky to cut the rope on the anchor," he said.

"There was blood going everywhere."

"I reckon I would have lost litres."

"I had to lay down and Jacky had to drive the boat back in."

Ms Lamb said she was shocked by the sight of Mr Johnson's blood.

"It looked like somebody had been murdered," she said.

It took the couple about 45 minutes to make it back to shore.

They arrived at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club and onlookers watched in amazement as Mr Johnson ran to shore with a blood-soaked towel wrapped around his leg.

Ken O'Brien and Chris Young, who had just come in from their own fishing trip, ran to Mr Johnson's aid.

A female employee from the Trailer Boat Club also came and gave first aid.

Mr O'Brien and Mr Young then put the wounded fishermen in the back of Mr O'Brien's car and drove him to Royal Darwin Hospital where doctors stitched up his leg.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to thank the people who had come to his aid in the true Territory way - by buying them a beer.

"They did a great job," he said.

The shark, with the hook still in it's mouth.

Geoff stumbles ashore and things are looking gory.

Geoff Johnson shows the price he paid for a spot of fishing.

[PM79]

And the idiot award goes to....

He should have just cut the line as close to the hook as possible and never brought it on board.

Edited October 14, 2008 by reLapse

[gretsch]

Wonder what he was using for bait....

[mitch]

Fair dinkum, that reefy looks mean. Sorry but i got half way through the story and had to have laugh to myself. not a nice thing to happen to anybody but.... wuld you expect a 1.8m anything to sit still if you grabbed it by the tail