A spearfisherman says he was saved by his best friend after a 15-foot white shark attacked.
Luke Pascoe, 17, was fishing off Mistaken Island Aug. 15 near Goode Beach in Western Australia when a shark showed up. Pascoe had just shot a fish in 30-foot deep water and surfaced when a shark grabbed his left knee and shin.
He was able to make it back to the rocky shore where his friend Conner Shirley administered first aid and took him to safety.
“Conner was the one that helped me up onto the rock and he piggybacked me 2km (1.24 miles) along the rocks back to the car and drove me to hospital,” Pascoe told ABC news.
“I owe my life to him. I was lying in bed last night and I was thinking to myself how lucky I am to still be here.”
Pascoe doesn’t blame the shark and believes he attracted it by shooting the fish. The event also won’t change his plans to return to the water after his rehabilitation.
Earlier this year another ocean user in Western Australia was bitten by a shark.
Jacquelin Morley, 20, was at Kelp Beds Beach in Wylie Bay Feb. 6 and floating in a pool ring around noon with friends. Then she started to drift farther from shore. The wind and waves pushed her 218 yards off the beach when a 10 to 13-foot white shark knocked her off her tube.
Good Samaritan Barry Brown swam out and met Morley as she swam back to shore. Brown was worried the shark would return, and saw it circle the float before it left.
After they returned to the beach Morley was taken to the hospital, and later flown to a larger hospital in Perth.
Both locations have been marked on the 2022 Shark Attack Map.
