WINK WINK

Survivor of Brutal Attack Says Shark Winked at Him

The firefighter has spoken publicly for the first time since the attack.

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An Australian firefighter has described locking eyes with the shark that severed his leg. Mel Ismail was surfing at Glenfield Beach near Geraldton, about 400 km north of Perth in West Australia, on Sept. 14 when he felt something big slam into him. “I thought I got hit by a dolphin, initially,” he told ABC News. Ismail was dragged underwater, where he tried to push his fingers into the animal’s “big black eye.” “I personally reckon it gave me the wink, and then shut my leg off,” he said. Ismail caught a wave closer to shore, where a fellow surfer, Shannan Dunn, raced into the water and put him on his board. A bystander called Rick made a tourniquet from a leg rope before Dunn drove Ismail down the beach in his four-wheel drive to meet an ambulance. Ismail’s leg was amputated just below the knee. He told the ABC the attack won’t keep him from the surf forever, and he plans to return to the water as his recovery continues. Fisheries officials have still not identified the species of shark involved in the attack.