Amateur lobster fisher escapes attack by 3.5m great white shark off Cape Jaffa
Amateur rock lobster fisher Luke Kuhn survives an attack by a great white shark. (Supplied: Luke Kuhn)
In short:
Amateur fisher Luke Kuhn says he is lucky to have escaped an encounter with a great white shark that bit his swim fin and dragged him along the ocean floor.
He says he has had four encounters with sharks as an avid diver and fisher, but this was the most harrowing.
What's next?
Mr Kuhn says he won't go back into the water without a shark-bite-resistant wetsuit.
Veteran amateur rock lobster fisher Luke Kuhn has lived up to his nickname "Lucky Luke" after surviving a great white shark biting onto his swim fin yesterday and dragging him along the ocean floor.
Mr Kuhn, along with his diving buddy Daniel Field, set out to dive for lobster at a local spot they know well at Cape Jaffa on the Limestone Coast in South Australia.
The pair noticed a seal hanging around the boat when they anchored, but did not think much of it.
Mr Kuhn descended to about 12 metres, where visibility was poor — less than 2 metres — and 10 minutes into his dive "all hell broke loose".
A juvenile white shark, sighted separately, near Cape Jaffa, on SA's Limestone Coast, on January 23. (Supplied: Aaron Connell)
"I was reaching under a shelf for a cray, then all of a sudden I'm getting dragged backwards along the ocean floor by something powerful, very powerful," he said.
"The shark had my fin. He was pulling, I was pulling.
"I looked over my shoulder, and my left foot was in his mouth. I was right next to his head.
"I managed to get my foot out of the fin and I swam back to my spot to get my loop in case he came back."
The shark then surfaced, barrel-rolled and seemed to be heading back for round two, but Mr Kuhn managed to elude it, making his way to the surface to alert his dive buddy.
"I was in a bit of shock trying to work out what happened, but made my way to the top and just yelled to my mate to come get me," he said.
Flinders University experts have tested wetsuit material to help save lives. (Supplied: Sam Cahir)
"He was at my side within seconds, and said my face was pure white."
Back onboard, the pair reported the encounter to Shark Watch SA.
"Within hours, my cousin in Switzerland is calling me. The story has gone everywhere, and all my mates who call me 'Lucky Luke' now have a new reason to do so," Mr Kuhn said.
Bite-resistant wetsuit on order
Mr Kuhn said he planned to wait a few weeks before getting back in the water and would not do so until his shark-bite-resistant wetsuit had arrived.
The $1,500 suit, designed in Australia with testing conducted by Flinders University, was developed in 2017 as a response to the regional increase in shark-human interactions.
Luke Kuhn and his dive buddy were fishing for lobster at Cape Jaffa when the attack occurred. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)
This latest incident follows local man and diver Jason Wallace surviving a close encounter with a great white shark off the Limestone Coast in late January.
Shark Watch SA managing director Anton Covino said conditions were prime for predatory behaviour from the species.
But he said the increased sightings reported by Shark Watch SA were based on contributed observations from marine frequenters, making it biased data and not a cause for concern.
Anton Covino says an increase in shark sightings does not necessarily mean shark numbers have risen. (ABC News)
"This year alone, I have received more sightings empirically of white sharks, but that simply could be because Shark Watch is on the rise in the media at the moment," he said.
"But who's to say that 10 or 15 years ago, we weren't having many, many more encounters, and back then they just simply weren't being reported?"
Mr Covino said divers understood the risk of their pursuits, especially when 5 kilometres offshore.