Australians pull no punches when it comes to sharks

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man fought off a shark as he snorkeled near Sydney Monday, freeing his leg from its jaws with a punch.

"I just turned and started swinging. I think I got one on him," Steven Foggarty, 24, told local media as he stood on crutches outside hospital.

"I just saw the blood all over both feet and had a quick look to make sure both legs were there and they were there."

Foggarty was bitten on his right leg by the bull shark as he snorkeled in the mouth of Lake Illawarra, south of Sydney. He suffered 40 puncture wounds to his calf.

It was the third shark attack in Australia in two days.

Off Australia's southern island state of Tasmania, an Australian surfer punched a five-meter (16-ft) shark in the head as he rescued his 13-year-old cousin who had been bitten on the leg and dragged beneath the water Sunday.

The pair were surfing when the white-pointer grabbed the girl's leg and dragged her down twice. Her cousin, Syb Mundy, 20, paddled over, punched the shark, put the girl onto his surfboard with him and paddled into shore.

Mundy said hitting the shark on the head "was like hitting a brick wall -- it was that dense." "It was easily the length of a car. It was just a monster," Mundy told local radio on Monday.

"Once it let her go she was bleeding pretty bad. There was a lot of blood in the water. I think it just didn't like the taste of her, to tell you the truth," he said.

The shark circled the pair as they paddled toward the beach.

"The shark actually got on to the wave. We looked to our left and this thing started surfing toward us and we just headed straight to the beach," said Mundy.

"I can remember seeing the eye come out of the water and the head and I was going to try and poke it in the eye if I could get close enough," he said.

WATER CHURNING

In another near-tragedy Sunday, a surfer on Australia's northeast coast survived a shark bite and paddled himself to shore with a 40-centimetre (16-inch) gash in his left thigh.

Jono Beard, 31, was surfing with friends, watching some dolphins swim by, when he was bitten. He paddled for 80 meters (yards) to the shore, all the while shadowed by the shark.