Man attacks shark!

Thanks to the sharp eyes of one who comments here as jair, a jaw-dropping story of when you know you've had too much vodka to be out catching squid!

An Eyre Peninsula man is the talk of the town after catching a bronze whaler shark in his hands and wrestling it up onto a jetty.

Phillip Kerkhof from Louth Bay was at the local jetty when the 1.3-metre shark began chasing squid lures.

He says he climbed down a ladder and began to follow the shark in shallow water.

"I just snuck up behind him and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," he said.

"He's just thrashing around in the water but then he was starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does'."

The only damage from the dangerous species was a bite mark to his jeans.

"It's not something I'd recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, 'I'm a bit of an idiot doing it'," Mr Kerkhof said.

Now, for anyone who hasn't been in Oz for the past month or so, this comes hot on the tail of another curious shark story from just a month ago, where Eric Nerhus, an abalone diver, took on a shark with his abalone iron while his head was inside the shark's mouth... and survived with only a few lacerations and broken nose.

Last time I was on Eyre Peninsula I took the chance to visit Blacks Point, near Elliston, where surfer Jevan Wright died, snatched by a white pointer, just short of his 18th birthday... pretty sad...

But now it seems vodka-fuelled man is fighting back!

White pointer image thanks to Dave Gittins
Eric Nerhus image thanks to BBC.
Categorised as: nature, society
Technorati Tags: Phillip Kerkhof, shark attack, white pointer, Eric Nerhus, Jevan Wright, Eyre+Peninsula