Aussie Surfer’s Shark Survival: Did the Shark Even Attack?

Marine life lover Juan Oliphant says that the shark accused of attacking Mick Fanning was actually trying to escape.

In this image made available by the World Surf League, Australian surfer Mick Fanning is pursued by a shark, in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa. (Photo: AP)

Soon after the heroic tale of Australian surfer Mick Fanning fighting a shark with his fists went viral, a marine life lover came out in the shark’s defence.

Calling it the shark’s  ‘escape’ and not ‘attack’, Juan Oliphant, a passionate shark conservationist, posted an analysis of the shark’s actual movement at the time of the incident on Instagram.

He wrote that ‘Mick Fanning was not attacked by a shark in the finals. The sharks tail fin is what was thrashing at the surface pointing in a downward angle. The shark got tangled in his surfboard leash. The shark then got freaked out and bolted down with Mick attached to it via the leash. Once the leash broke Mick was okay. If it was an attack the shark would have come in hard for a bite on Mick or his board in a upward angle.’

He added that ‘the shark was coming to investigate and see what Mick was and if his leg rope had not got tangled the great white underneath him may have gone unnoticed.’

Oliphant felt that ‘this should be a positive media piece about how sharks don’t see people as food and that this was just an entanglement accident not an attack.’

Watch the Aussie surfer’s shark survival video here.