A New Zealand diver has shared footage of the moment he was bitten by a shark in Fiji during a spearfishing adventure last week.
Henry Gibbs posted a video to his Instagram account of the moment he was attacked, explaining what happened leading up to the bite.
"We’d been diving the reef for an hour or two before moving off into the clearer blue water to try and pursue something a bit bigger while spearfishing," Gibbs wrote.
"We’d missed a few shots on other fish, and there were a handful of grey reef sharks around, with this one hanging around us longer than the others."
Gibbs says he will never know exactly what caused this particular reef shark to become agitated and start making semi-circles around his group, but speculated it may have been commotion from their nearby boat or the sound of the spearguns.
"Looking back, that should’ve been enough of a sign to call the dive. I never thought a shark of that size posed much of a threat, and that was a mistake."
The video he shared shows a shark swimming below him in tight circles before it races up to him and latches on to his leg.
Gibbs screams in pain as he attempts to shake the shark off.
"I knew it was coming for me, which is why you can hear me starting to make a fuss before it even gets to me. It sidesteps the speargun, peels underneath me, latches onto the back of my calf and starts death rolling.
"Most of my experience with sharks has been in New Zealand, where they’re generally much less aggressive. I made the mistake of expecting this shark to behave the same way."
Gibbs needed multiple surgeries and a skin graft after the incident and used his post today to thank all the hospital staff who looked after him.
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