'Head In Shark' Diver's Story Worth A Million? Or More?

"I Could Feel The Teeth Crunching Up And Down"


UPDATE : Eric Nerhus, the abalone diver who was almost bitten in half by a great white shark off the coast of New South Wales, has given his first interview to Channel Nine's A Current Affair, from his hospital bed :

"I'm just an ordinary working man, a family man, who just wanted to survive very, very badly, at all costs...

"I went straight into its mouth, front onwards, and my shoulders, my head and one arm went straight down into its throat and I could feel the teeth crunching up and down on my weight vest...

"It knocked the [air] regulator out of my mouth so I didn't have any oxygen, and then it started to shake me and I thought 'Oh no, I know what happens when they shake you. That's when they cut off the biggest piece of meat they can get'.

"I put my left hand down the side of its face because my head, shoulders and right arm were right down in its throat … half my body was in its mouth.

"I felt down to the eye socket, and with my stiff fingers I poked my fingers into the eye socket, which the shark reacted to in a way that [it] opened its mouth a bit and I tried to wriggle out."

Eric should be out of hospital by the weekend.

Yesterday's story : 41 year old abalone diver, Eric Nerhus, survived an incredible encounter with a three metre long Great White shark. It tried to bite off his head and swallow him whole. He poked it in the eye and escaped.

Now he has to survive the media feeding frenzy.

Nerhus has picked up instant-celebrity deal broker, Harry M. Miller, and one of the biggest selling tabloid magazines and a key television network have already secured exclusive rights to
his story.

Eric was attacked by the shark less than 48 hours ago.

And those deals, easily worth six figures, are just for Australia.

Agent Harry M. Miller has an interesting stable of 'stars', including Lindy "A dingo's got my baby!" Chamberlain, a former prime minister, a man who survived days buried under the ruins of a ski lodge alongside his dead wife, and a fleet of former Big Brother contestants.

Mr Miller's website has a page on 'crisis management', which translates to 'We will help you cash in on your success, or unfortunate circumstance'.

Or as Miller puts it :

"Sometimes people find themselves in a period of crisis, be it due to a personal event, a natural disaster or another unavoidable situation. Often, in what can be a time of emotional vulnerability, they find themselves the focus of media attention and, understandably, do not feel equipped to deal with it."

American television and cable networks have been on the phone to Miller trying to cut their own deals. But Miller is believed to be holding out for the Dame Of Pain, Oprah Winfrey, before he signs away US rights to Eric's story.

The international bidding rights war is now officially on.

Considering the circulation of the tabloid magazine and the potential audience in Australia for a one hour television special where Eric would tell his tale, along with the mandatory book deal, and perhaps a few advertising gigs (selling tuna?) he's going to be a millionaire.

Miller's usual strategy is to score a big fee locally, in Australia, and then pick up five figure, and the occasional six figure deal, wherever he can find them in the rest of the world. It all adds up.

Hopefully, when the doco about Eric is made, there will lots of information and history about the freelance abalone diving industry in Australia.

These divers live hard, dangerous lives, for minor riches that are something close to a lottery, and few Australians are even aware that people do this for a living.So what's it like to be an Australian abalone diver?

Imagine working in an office block where two ever-hungry tigers patrol the corridors and ride the elevators from floor to floor.

That's the above water corporate equivalent of being an abalone diver.Let's hope Eric survives his encounters with the media circus, and doesn't have to poke anyone in the eye to escape, again.


From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Abalone divers are today heading back into southern NSW waters where the shark attacked Mr Nerhus, saying the incident would not stop them from working.

John Smythe, an abalone fisherman from the tight-knit Eden diving community, said divers would be taking extra precautions but the attack would not stop them from diving today.

"I think it [the shark attack] will make people think, but I don't think it will make people suddenly walk off the job," Mr Smythe told ABC Radio.

"We're in their [the sharks'] domain and you have to respect that. We do take precautions. If you are diving in spots like Cape Howe ... your boat will be sitting directly above you and when you do your ascents and descends you'd be looking.

"So to put it in perspective, you can make your diving a lot safer but nevertheless you are in their [the sharks'] domain."

Mr Smythe, who was on a recreational dive north of Eden at the time of yesterday's attack, says seal colonies in the area often attract white pointer sharks.

"In 32 years of diving I've seen two big whites just cruising in the distance ... I have seen a big shark at this time of year and one in the middle of winter," he said.

"Cape Howe is one of those particularly sharky spots, there's a lot of currents going on along there, it's basically the start of the Bass Strait and there are seal colonies.

"It's common to see seals with their heads bitten off, white pointers just come in for a bit of a taste."

Mr Smythe said the abalone diving community agreed with shark specialists that the shark probably mistook Mr Nerhus for a seal.

"When I found out that he was diving on the bottom on the rocks, where it's a very weedy habitat, and mentioned that to other divers, the comment straight away was that he was mistaken for a seal," Mr Smythe said.

"No doubt the shark sensed movement in the reed and went in to discover that this guy would put up a fight, not like your ordinary seal."

Marine experts unanimously agree that the shark, once it got taste of Eric, would have tried to spit him back out again. And the poke in the eye, and the smack across the gills with an abalone pick, would have only encouraged the white pointer to let him go.


Previously : 'Head In Shark' Abalone Diver's Miraculous Survival Story, 30 Feet Below

Head In Shark

"Poke The Bastard In The Eye"



"The Shark Swallowed His Whole Head"

By Darryl Mason


The three metre long white pointer had slammed its jaws shut on his head. It was dark in there. But he knew how to make the shark let go. He hit the shark with his abalone hammer, and poked it in the eye....


When I learned to dive in my early 20s, the men from the dive shop who taught me seemed like gods of the ocean. They'd travelled to dozens of countries to dive on reefs and wrecks. They'd had more adventures in five years than most people have in a lifetime.

They were full of stories about how they'd 'surfed' on the back of whales and wrestled seals and been carried along for miles holding onto the fins of dolphins.

But the best stories they had were about sharks.

White pointers in particular.

If you dive regularly off the East Coast of Australia, you're going to eventually see a shark swimming around down there in all that glorious glowing blue.

Most of the time, the sharks won't bother you. They might give you nudge, just to see if you are a seal, or something else worth taking a bite out of.

But the divers who instructed me recommended that if a shark ever came to close, or I was feeling nervous about its presence, all I had to do was give it a smack in the snout or simply drive a finger into its eye.

"You're shitting me," I said. But they weren't.

"Nuh. That's what you do, mate. Just poke the bastard in the eye. He'll bugger off quick smart."

Large sharks have next to no natural enemies in the oceans, except for man. They're not used to getting beat up, or having their eyes poked. It freaks them out, the divers insisted.

Never got the chance to see if they were telling the truth, or if it was yet another tale tall of the these instructors greatest diving days.


But abalone diver, Eric Nerhus got the chance yesterday to try the 'theory' out yesterday, near Eden.

And it worked.

This is definitely one of the best tales I've heard in months. If you were at the pub with this guy, having a few, swapping stories, you'd be thinking, 'no matter what I come up with, this bastard's got the story to beat them all'.

And he has. Oh, yeah, Erics' got the best story of them all :

The shark had Mr Nerhus's head in its jaws, but marine experts say it chewed him then spat him out when it realised he was not a seal.

Mr Nerhus, 41, a black belt in karate who has been diving professionally for five years, was scouring reefs at Cape Howe, near Eden, with his son, Mark, 16, when the shark pounced about 9.30am.

In an instant the shark snapped its jaw around Mr Nerhus's head with such force it crushed his face mask and broke his nose.

He fought to break free but Mr Nerhus's torso was then pulled into the shark's mouth and it bit into the diver's sides.

"He was actually bitten by the head down," said a friend and fellow diver, Dennis Luobikis. "The shark swallowed his head."

But the white pointer, probably weighing about 500 kilograms, would not have liked the taste...

"They go for rich, fatty meat, like seals, and with his black diving outfit moving around in the reef [Mr Nerhus] would have looked like a seal. Humans are not a part of their diet"

"When it bit into this scrawny human being it would probably have thought 'yuck' and let him go."

Mr Nerhus, who was recovering in Wollongong Hospital last night, told friends and rescuers he had used his abalone chisel to hit the shark about the head and poke its eye to escape...

"Everything went black," Eric told his rescuers, who hauled him out of the water and into a boat for the hour long trip back to shore.

Eric was diving in eight metres of water when the shark mistook him for a seal :

He escaped with deep puncture wounds to the chest and shoulder and a broken nose. His weight vest prevented more serious injuries.

"He came up to surface and was going 'oh help, help there's a shark, there's a shark'. I went over and there was a big pool of red blood and I pulled him out of the water," Mark said.

His son, Mark, was working on a boat nearby. Eric's main concern was that he had suffered horrific facial injuries from the attack. He thought if he was left disfigured, it would upset his son.

Another fisherman, Reece Warren, said: "He had bite marks all around his chest. He said 'the abalone are all right down there'."

Paramedics said they were amazed by the composure of Mr Nerhus, who declared "I'm all right" as he arrived at Wollongong Hospital.

Fellow diver Dennis Luobikis said it was a miracle his friend had lived.

"Eric is a tough boy, he's super fit," he said. "But I would say that would test anyone's resolve, being a fish lunch. He's up and about and he's sore and sorry."

There has been a rash of sightings of great whites – also known as white pointers – in recent weeks due to unusually cold waters off Eden...

Somebody needs to come up with a special plastic tool for divers and surfers they can slip into their wetsuits. The Shark Eye Gouger.

One of Eric's best mates said he was a "fearless warrior" and the shark wouldn't have known what hit him :

"He's a black belt in karate, which would give you a bit of discipline. If you panic you're in trouble.

"The eyes [of a shark] are a vulnerable spot. It would have been an instinctive reaction to find the eyes. This won't faze Eric. Now it will just give him the opportunity to get his shirt off and show his scars."

So now you know.

The next time a three metre long white pointer shark bites down on your head and tries to swallow you whole, go for the eyes.

It works.

The divers weren't telling me tall tales after all.

Fantastic stuff.

What a story.


Why Sharks Attack Humans - Particularly In Australia

Man Attacked By White Pointer Off Western Australia Vows To Keep Diving

Everything You Need To Know About The Great White Shark

A Short History Of Abalone Diving In Australia