Shark attack survivor, conservationist honoured

It’s been almost 60 years since Rodney Fox found himself in the jaws of a Great White Shark but he can still feel the tension of the moment as he recalls the attack.

Rodney Fox shows his scars.

It’s been almost 60 years since Rodney Fox found himself in the jaws of a Great White Shark but he can still feel the tension of the moment as he recalls the attack.

Instead of instilling in him a fear and hatred of sharks, the brush with death during a spearfishing competition in South Australia left him with a deep appreciation of the apex predator and led to his lifelong advocacy for shark conservation.

It was also the impetus for a now thriving Port Lincoln cage-diving business that brings tourists face-to-face with great white sharks and helps build their ­respect for the threatened species.

South Australian shark attack survivor Rodney Fox at his Mile End Shark Museum. Picture: Ben Clark

It is for these efforts that Mr Fox, 82, will be honoured as a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia.

He has told the story so many times over the past six decades that he could be forgiven for being desensitised to it. But for Mr Fox, each retelling brings back the fear and brutality of the moment.

“When I tell the story I follow myself and what I did, and how I stuck my fingers in his eyes to try to make it let go of me, and then I grabbed it in a bear hug and we smashed into the bottom,” Mr Fox said.

“I still feel the tension after all these years of trying to get up to the surface and taking a breath and then the big shark coming ­towards me through the bright red water, this great big head with its teeth coming towards me.

“It swallowed my fish float with fish on it, which probably saved my life.”

Aside from the C-shaped scars to his upper torso, which required 462 stitches, Mr Fox suffered no long-term problems.

Rodney Fox, shortly after the attack.

After his release from hospital, Mr Fox returned to the water with a new-found fascination with the ocean’s apex predator.

“I did find out at that time that there was an incredible hatred and fear of sharks,” Mr Fox said.

“I thought there’s something really wrong with that. I wanted to get back into the water to find out what they’re really like.”

While visiting Adelaide Zoo, the moat-lined cage of the lion’s enclosure gave him an idea.

“Seeing the water and a man-eater there gave me the absolute idea that maybe I can reverse the role; I can make a cage and get in the cage and go out with the great whites and have a look at them myself and make up my own mind if I wanted to go back diving,” Mr Fox said.

What followed was a lifetime of documentary films and expeditions to show tourists great whites in their natural habitat.

Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions has led thousands of tours off the Neptune Islands, South Australia.

It included a role helping film footage for the Stephen Spielberg film Jaws, which terrified generations of moviegoers.

At first Mr Fox regretted his involvement and the fear and hysteria generated by the film. “For many years I was not proud of it because I was a conservationist and this frightened everybody out of the water,” he said.

“What’s happened over the last 30 or 40 years is so many ­people have told me they actually became marine scientists and interested in sharks because of the Jaws movie, so it works both ways.”