Shark attack survivor says as he was trying to poke its eye, the shark winked at him, then bit his leg off

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An Australian surfer came face-to-face with a shark last month while surfing alone at Glenfield Beach on the coast of Western Australia. He says that before biting his leg off, the shark “winked” at him.

Mel Ismail, a 56-year-old father, was rescued by another surfer who just happened to show up at the beach and was willing to risk his own life by grabbing his board and heading towards the bloody water.

Palm Beach closed as beaches in Sydney's north have been closed since Tuesday due to shark attacks and dangerous currents during summer in Sydney on January 22, 2026 in Sydney, Australia.

Following the attack, Dr. Mary Pinder, the head of the ICU, said: “This person remains in a stable condition; however, he has sustained serious injuries and faces a long recovery.”

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That was weeks ago. Ismail is now talking about how one minute he was watching a pod of dolphins and the next he was looking into the eye of a shark that had slammed into him.

“I thought I got hit by a dolphin, initially, because there were so many of them,” Ismail told Australian ABC News. “No, it wasn’t, Something grabbed me and dragged me down into the water. And I knew it was a shark.”

Great white shark approaches near Isla Guadalupe in the Pacific Ocean.

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After dragging him under the water, he says he was face-to-face with the shark and looked it in the eye.

“I got to a point where I saw its eye,” Ismail continued. “It had a big black eye, and I was trying to get my finger into. I knew it had my leg.”

What happened next left him missing his right leg below the knee.

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Surfer rides a wave at Saint-Gilles les bains beach in La Réunion.

“I personally reckon it gave me the wink, and then shut my leg off, and I knew it had taken my leg,” Ismail said of the shark attack.

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From there, he tried to remain calm. His goal was to survive. Which he did, even though he lost part of his leg, with the help of the other surfer who showed up at the right time.

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