British surfer has fight with shark - afraid to tell his mother

A British doctor who was surfing in New South Wales, Australia punched a shark in the face after it bit his shoulder.

Charlie Fry, 25, was enjoying the waves of Avoca Beach on 12 November, when a shark mauled his right shoulder. He told the Daily Telegraph he turned around just to see the beast sinking its teeth in his skin.

"I just punched it with my left hand and shouted out to my mates and paddled so hard back to shore," Fry said.

The doctor's friends - also practicians - assessed the wound and determined an ambulance was unnecessary. The trio immediately drove to Gosford Hospital, where they all worked.

"Luckily all three of them were doctors so they knew what to do," a spokeswoman for New South Wales Surf Life Saving said.

Fry seemed more concerned about his mother's reaction than the wound: 'Geez I don't know if I can tell mum, she might kill me," he said, adding: "I've just got here and I've already been attacked."

The council lifeguards have close Avoca beach. New South Wales Surf Life Saving might "deploy assets tomorrow and have a look around."

Although it is unknown what type of shark attacked Fry, both a great white shark and a bronze whaler shark were spotted off the coast by lifeguards.

A combination of warm ocean water and "a lot of fish" in the area had attracted the shark closer to shore, lifeguards suspect.

In the last 100 years, there have been 541 unprovoked shark attacks on the Australian shores.
17 took place in 2016, two of which were fatal.

Just last month, on 17 October, 15 years old Sarah Williams was thrown off her kayak by a
15-foot shark while paddling with her family in South Australia. She told Channel 9 that the nightmarish experience was "everything you picture in the Jaws movie."

Sarah's father, Chris, said the animal should be hunted and killed. "It was going to eat her," he said. "The difference between my daughter being alive and not being with me today is 10 seconds. It's something I don't ever want to experience again."

Back in September, several dangerous sharks had been spotted hunting unusually close to Australia's beaches. Authorities warned people to be sensible while in the water.