In the wake of Sydney’s first fatal shark attack in 60 years, one survivor’s harrowing account has resurfaced, offering a rare and unflinching look at what it means to stare death in the jaws—and live.
Just one day after a swimmer was killed by a great white shark at Little Bay in full view of horrified onlookers, former Australian Navy diver Paul de Gelder has recounted the terrifying moment in 2009 when a bull shark ripped off his right arm and tore a chunk from his leg during a routine exercise in Sydney Harbour.
“I didn’t feel the teeth go in,” de Gelder recalled. “It just felt like pressure, because their teeth are so sharp, and designed to slice straight into meat with ease.”
The bull shark, with its powerful jaws lined with approximately 36 razor-sharp teeth on each side, locked onto de Gelder’s right leg and hand in a single devastating bite, dragging him underwater. The teeth moved in opposite directions like a saw, cutting through flesh before ripping away.
“I was being torn apart, in agony, and I was drowning at the same time,” he said.
De Gelder had been swimming calmly on the surface in a black wetsuit and fins, floating on his back, when the shark struck from below. Graphic footage from the incident shows the shark thrashing violently in the water with the diver in its grip. Instinctively, he fought back, attempting to punch the shark and reach its eyes, but he couldn’t make contact.
Underwater for eight to ten seconds, de Gelder resigned himself to death. Time slowed. His mind raced through his life.
“I remember thinking to myself: ‘I’m not going to go home today,’” he revealed. “I realised that I just didn’t [have regrets]. A calm washed over me and I was ready to just sail into the abyss.”
What ultimately saved him was the very violence of the attack. After the shark severed his right forearm and tore into his hamstring, it lost its grip. The buoyancy of his wetsuit carried him back to the surface.
As the shark’s tail thrashed the water, splashing his face, de Gelder realised he was still alive. Spotting the safety boat, he swam desperately through a cloud of his own blood, keeping his stump elevated to slow the bleeding.
“It was a bad day at work,” he later reflected with characteristic understatement.
De Gelder, now 45, spent three months in rehabilitation. He was fitted with a prosthetic forearm, hand, and leg. Determined at first to return to his role as a clearance diver, he eventually transitioned into motivational speaking. Today, he lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a presenter on Shark Week and a passionate advocate for shark conservation.
Despite the trauma, de Gelder has become a voice for understanding rather than fear. He warns that the worst response when encountering a shark is to swim away.
“They won’t attack something that they know is going to fight back, because they don’t want to get hurt either,” he explained. “You have to face off against the shark… If you swim away from it, you put it into its predatory mode.”
A Rare and “Particularly Nasty” Event
Sydney University shark expert Dr Chris Pepin-Neff described Wednesday’s fatal attack at Little Bay as “particularly nasty,” noting that such full-consumption incidents are exceptionally rare.
“There have probably been only 10 or 12 attacks of this kind in the last 30 years in the entire world,” he told News Corp Australia, comparing it to the 2001 fatal attack on South Australian surfer Jevan White.
Dr Pepin-Neff has long advocated for a change in language—from “shark attacks” to “shark bites”—arguing that most incidents involve sharks testing potential prey before releasing.
“Eighty per cent of incidents are hit-and-run,” he said. “Sharks will recognise humans as a ‘biological failure’ as we take more energy than we give so we are not a prey item. It’s a bite and release.”
De Gelder echoes this perspective, acknowledging that sharks are opportunistic ambush hunters. His survival story, marked by both unimaginable horror and remarkable resilience, serves as a powerful reminder of the thin line between life and death in the ocean—and humanity’s complex relationship with these ancient predators.