Aussie says poking shark in eyes saved his life

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An Australian swimmer survived an attack by a great white shark by poking the creature in the eye as it dragged him through the water and tore flesh from his left leg this weekend.

Jason Cull, 37, was swimming off at Middleton Beach in southwestern Australia on Saturday when the 12-foot shark attacked.

‘Initially I thought it was a dolphin,’ Cull told the Australian media. ‘I just remember being dragged along backwards. I was trying to feel its gills but I found its eye and I stuck my finger in and that’s when it let go.’

The shark tore two chunks from Cull’s left leg. He was rescued by a lifeguard.

Last month, a shark killed a 16-year-old surfer off Australia’s eastern coast; in Solana Beach, a great white fatally injured a man; and U.S. surfer was killed in a shark attack off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast.

--Francisco Vara-Orta