South Australian fisherman recalls terrifying brush with bronze whaler shark

A South Australian man is lucky to be alive after coming between a bronze whaler shark and its prey.

Lee Taplin was fishing alone just before midnight on the remote Wrights Bay beach when he hooked a stingray.

A shark soon appeared and began to attack the ray.

When Mr Taplin hauled his catch in and attempted to release it, the shark turned on him, seizing his leg.

“I was just coming back out and I got grabbed from behind just right here in the shallows,” Mr Taplin said today.

“I just sort of hit him from behind because he got me from behind by surprise in the dark, and like the first reaction is you trying to slap it or punch it away.”

Mr Taplin struck out at the shark until it released him.

He then drove himself 30 minutes to the nearest hospital, where he received stitches for deep puncture wounds.

Bronze whalers are estimated to have killed at least three people across the country since 2004, with South Australia seeing a number of people hospitalised following serious attacks.

Bronze whaler sharks can grow up to three-and-a-half metres long and are known to hunt in groups of three or more.