Marine Biologist Fought Off Shark Who Returned to Kill Him

Jarrod Stehbens, 23, and his colleague Justin Rowntree, went diving off Glenelg Beach on Australia’s southern coast Wednesday to collect cuttlefish eggs to study. The two divers, both marine biologists at the University of Adelaide, were working with two other researchers who waited for them in a boat above while Stehbens and Rowntree worked in 60-foot deep water about 16 feet below the surface. The biologists on the surface did not see anything out of the ordinary when a large shark approached the divers, but Rowntree felt the predator brush pass him. "I thought it was a dolphin," Rowntree said. "It just nudged my side and I looked around," he added, saying that what he saw was "just a big white mass." Realizing that the mass was actually a shark, Rowntree quickly surfaced and was hauled to safety by his colleagues on the boat, who by then had seen the shark’s dorsal fin slice upward through the surface of the water.

Rowntree and the other biologists watched in horror as the great white approached Stehbens and lunged at him. Stehbens fought off the predator calmly at first, succeeding in turning the attack away, but before he could surface the shark returned and grabbed his leg. According to Rowntree, "Jarrod fought it off initially, and then it came back again and grabbed his leg and just took him deeper. He seemed quite calm—he was trying to get his leg out of its mouth." Rowntree added that he felt utterly helpless as he watched his friend being dragged deeper into the depths of the water until he was gone. "Lots of things were going through my mind. I just hoped, I just hoped that he’d come up." But despite searches by divers and police, no trace of Stehbens has been found except for his buoyancy vest and air tank. Thursday officials called off the search for his body.

Glenelg Beach is a popular vacation spot in Adelaide, located in a region that has been the site of five fatal shark attacks in as many years. Wednesday’s attack came only eight months after an 18-year old surfer, Nick Peterson, was killed at nearby West Beach by a 16-foot great white shark while he was being towed on his surfboard by a motorized dinghy. The increasing frequency of shark attacks along Adelaide beaches has caused locals to complain that laws protecting the great white shark are resulting in a growing menace to people using the water for research or sport. David Stehbens, the victim’s father, described his son as an experienced diver well acquainted with underwater environments and denizens of the deep. He told reporters that he and his son had discussed the pros and cons of a shark cull because of the increasing frequency of attacks, but his son was adamantly opposed to the idea. "He’s a marine biologist—he wouldn’t want anything killed like that," the elder Stehbens said. But local residents maintain that even a controlled shark kill wouldn’t change anything because sharks are drawn to the area naturally due to many fisherman dumping fish guts and waste into the water. Local fisherman Keith Klemasz thinks that divers need to realize the area is unsafe and steer clear. "It is crazy; they are shark bait," Klemasz said.