'Worst shark attack ever': Rodney Fox who was dragged underwater by great white thought he was hit by a train

ALDINGA, AUSTRALIA: Shark attacks grab headlines across the globe whenever they occur and survivors often have harrowing tales to tell. The media glare often means that that sharks, as the 'villains,' bear the brunt of human violence too.

But hopeful stories sometimes emerge from these man-animal conflict stories. Such is the case of Rodney Fox.

Fox, now 80 years old, was only 23 when he survived a shark attack that left him with a pierced shoulder blade, a punctured diaphragm, and a torn lung in 1963.

He now spreads awareness about the importance of sharks and works to protect them.

Rodney Fox had to get 462 stitches after being left with open wounds down his abdomen, spleen, ribcage, and stomach during the attack, The Sun reported.

‘It was such a big thump’

Fox was a young man in his prime when he participated in a spearfishing competition on Aldinga Beach on the fateful day of the attack.

A year earlier, in 1962, the then-young man had already won the South Australian Spear Fishing title.

Recalling the horrific incident, Fox shared, as reported by McSweeney's, “I dived down and I was gliding along and I was just going to spear a big fish…"

“I knew I had it, I was so close, and its head was in the weed, and I couldn’t see it. As I was about to shoot it, this huge thump hit me in the chest so hard that immediately I thought it was a train, and then I thought, ‘No I’m underwater.’ ”

“It was such a big thump, and it knocked the gun out of my hand, the mask off my face, and I was just hurled through the water faster than I could swim,” he explained.

‘I ended up with ninety-seven stitches’

The elderly man went on to say, “I thought, ‘What can I do to get out of its mouth?’ Its eyes were probably the most vulnerable thing."

“My arms were over the top of it, so I gouged its head, and it seemed to stop. I thrust my hand out instinctively to push it away and my hand went over its teeth in its mouth. I quickly dragged it out before it could close its mouth, but I lifted it and — rrip — I ended up with ninety-seven stitches [on my arm].”

Describing the intense moment, Fox stated, “The memory I have, this memory of looking down through the blood red water, which is my blood, and this great big head coming up with its mouth wide open — is the scariest one in my whole memory, because I had nothing to protect myself with."

“I thought, ‘What can I do, What can I do?’ And I kicked at the head as hard as I could and it came up to bite me, its mouth wide open. I kicked at it, thinking that’s the only thing I’ve got. But everything underwater is twenty percent further away, so I just touched it with the fin, and not smash it as I expected to.”

However, eventually, the beast stopped attacking Fox because of “the fish float I was towing behind me."

“It swallowed that whole and did a circle, tightened the rope to my belt — it must’ve thought something was wrong, and it took off,” he added.

Despite enduring so much, Fox still thinks of about the overall welfare of sharks. The skilled diver reportedly said, “Science has proven we need sharks — they’re not very many, they don’t have many young.”

“The food that they eat is the slowest — the weak, the sick, the ones with viruses. We should protect and look after them,” he concluded.