Shark survivor and advocate Rodney Fox wins Conservation Council Lifetime Achiever Award

Shark attack survivor, advocate and filmmaker Rodney Fox has won a the 2018 Lifetime Achiever Award from the Conservation Council.

Watching caged lions from behind a moat at Adelaide Zoo gave 1962 state spearfishing champion and shark attack victim Rodney Fox an idea.

“The water and the cage and the man-eating lions prompted me to think, what if I reverse the role and I get in a cage and I have a look at the sharks – I can make up my own mind if I want to go diving again,” he said.

“So that was the inspiration to make a cage to go and look at the sharks without being harmed.

“No-one had filmed great white sharks underwater, only dead ones hanging on hooks.”

Rodney Fox at the location of his attack at Aldinga Beach. Picture: Matt Turner

Then came a series of firsts: the first shark expedition, first cage dive and first film of great white sharks.

More than 80 films and documentaries about sharks followed, including Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, Jaws, along with the rise of a great nature tourism industry.

Fox campaigned for the protection of great white sharks and helped transform the public perception from one of fear to fascination. The Conservation Council last night recognised his crucial role with a Lifetime Achiever Award.

Rodney Fox at home with his shark artifact collection. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Fox, 78, of Glenelg East, said he was very pleased to accept the honour as a “reward for all the terrible times I have had trying to protect sharks since my attack in 1963”.

His motto is “look out for and look after the sharks”.

As South Australia’s Spear Fishing Champion of 1962, Fox was trying to regain his title when he was attacked by a great white, off Aldinga Beach.

He had 462 stitches in his chest and 92 in his right hand and arm.

A series of firsts, including the first shark cage dives, followed Mr Fox’s survival story in 1963.

In 2001, with son Andrew, he founded the non-profit Fox Shark Research Foundation with a mission “to inspire the appreciation and understanding of great white sharks through research and education”.

The awards were presented at the Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the city.