APEX PREDATOR
I was savaged by a 700lb shark – it sank 350 teeth into me, shook me like a rag doll & left me choking on my own blood
A MAN who was savaged by a 700lb shark has told how it sank a whopping 350 teeth into him as he fought for his life.
Paul De Gelder, 45, was "shaken like a rag doll" by the underwater beast and left choking on his own blood.
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The shark attack survivor from Melbourne, Australia, was ambushed by the 9ft bull shark while swimming across Sydney Harbour.
He was completing a routine military exercise with the Australian Navy in February 2009 when the aggressive species spotted him in the water.
Paul had been floating on his back wearing a black wet suit and rubber fins - which he blames for making him a prime target for the underwater predator.
The 45-year-old described how the bull shark "clamped" its jaws around his right leg and hand, dragging him below the surface.
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He told the : "My fighting instinct kicked in. As every schoolboy knows, if you’re attacked by a shark, punch it in the eye.
"That was the one option denied to me as my right hand was pinned by its teeth to my leg."
He was trapped underwater with the beast, struggling to free himself from its razor-sharp teeth shredding through his flesh.
Bull sharks boast more gnashers than any other species, with seven sharp pearly whites sitting in a whopping 50 rows.
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Paul recalled how he could horrifically feel the muscles from his hamstring and hand being ripped off - while he drowning at the same time.
The desperate Army vet and former paratrooper again attempted a counterattack on the "terrifyingly aggressive" apex predator with his left hand.
He continued: "That’s when it started to shake me like a rag doll.
"As its teeth worked through my flesh and bone like saws, I was overcome by the most intense pain imaginable."
Paul's agonising injuries saw all his strength zap out of him, leaving him choking on his own crimson blood that had filled the water.
The 700lb beast then began to drag him into the depths, seeing him resign himself to his doomed fate.
But the bull shark then bizarrely released its ferocious grip on the diver, leaving a gravely injured Paul to bob back to the surface.
I closed my eyes and prepared to bleed to death.
Paul De Gelder
The experienced 45-year-old raised his gored arm out of the water as he desperately tried to signal his pals and reach the safety boat.
He added: "I saw the look of horror on the faces of my teammates as they hauled me in and so I did what soldiers do, and cracked a joke.
"Then I closed my eyes and prepared to bleed to death."
Paul said he owes his life to one of his quick-thinking colleagues who "shoved his hand inside my leg and held my severed artery closed with his fingers" until he reached dry land.
His right arm and leg had been hacked off by the fearsome bull shark, forcing him to spend a gruelling three months in rehabilitation.
But the 45-year-old miraculously returned to work for the Navy before becoming a motivational speaker championing the protection of sharks.
The double amputee also believes he has cracked the case as to why the beast savaged him in the murky waters of Sydney Harbour.
'BAD DAY AT WORK'
He suspects his dark diving gear and flippers had enticed the shark to the surface, under the illusion he was another sea creature rather than a human.
Paul added: "Slapping a flipper against water creates the kind of low-frequency soundwaves that sharks are attuned to and that’s probably what drew the bull to me.
"It had clearly decided that there was only one way to establish what was making that splashing on the surface: bite it."
Despite his near-death experience, the former diver still enjoys a dip in the ocean - and has even returned for a splash in Sydney Harbour.
He refuses to let his injuries from his "bad day at work" stop him from living life to the full, leading him to become an expert on sharks.
Paul wants to make people "fall in love with sharks like he has" and for swimmers to understand the dangers of entering animal habitats.
The survivor said: "Shark attacks are rare and we need to think of them as accidents rather than murders.
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"With the exception of shipwreck survivors, almost all shark-attack victims are in the water because the ocean is a magical place that they love.
"Sharks are a part of that magic and we must always remember that we are guests in their home."
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