'NEVER BEEN MORE SCARED'
Surfer recalls horrifying moment he fought off shark after being bitten on coast that has seen FIVE attacks in 2 weeks
A SUFER recalled the horrifying moment when he fought off a shark after being bitten on a coast that’s already seen five attacks in two weeks.
Shawn Donnelly, 41, was lying on his surfboard on Wednesday morning on the waters of a beachfront park in Long Island, New York when the sea predator sunk its teeth in his left calf.
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“The shark ambushed me,” he told . “I have never been more scared in my entire life…I screamed and flailed.”
The bite sent Donnelly hurling into the seven foot-deep water as he was approximately 40 feet from the shore of Smith Point County Park in Shirley.
He said he could see the spotted dorsal fin of the possible sand tiger shark.
“It came up from the sandbar like a torpedo,” he said.
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“There was no fish jumping out of the water, no water moving, just quiet then ’bang.’ Next thing I knew the shark knocked me off my board.”
Donnelly slapped the animal and managed to get back on his board as the five-foot-long man-eater lurked beneath him.
“I was horrified,” he said. “I just slapped the shark once. I hit it, then instantly turned and paddled for the beach.
“When I got back on my board it was under me, so close,” he said.
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Thankfully, a wave helped him flee to the coastline.
“I…paddled like hell. After a couple of strokes, a wave broke behind me and pushed me to shore,” Donnelly said.
Once he was out of the water, Donnelly couldn’t believe what happened to him. That’s when he noticed blood dripping from a 2-inch cut on his leg.
“I did a quick check. I thought maybe he didn’t get me. Then I saw the blood running down my leg and one clear bite mark,” he said.
Donnelly walked to the check-in booth of a nearby campground and told a park ranger what happened to him.
His injuries were treated at Long Island Community Hospital.
“It happened so fast,” he said.
“I was afraid when it happened, then I was back on the beach I had so much adrenaline it didn’t even seem like it was real.”
Donnelly is one of five people who were attacked by sharks in Long Island in the past few weeks.
A 49-year-old man from Arizona was at Fire Island’s Seaview Beach on Wednesday in waist-deep water when a shark bit him on the buttocks and left wrist, said Suffolk County Police.
On July 3, Zach Gallo, a lifeguard who lives in the area, was bitten on the chest and hand by a shark near Smith Point County Park.
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Days later, another lifeguard was also chomped off of Ocean Beach on Fire Island.
A 37-year-old swimmer had his foot bitten near Jones Beach on June 30.
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