Shark expert Andrew Fox has hit back at Melbourne breakfast radio hosts who accused young mum Leah Stewart of embellishing details of her harrowing escape from a great white shark.
Stewart, 34, emotionally recalled her near-death experience with 60 Minutes on Sunday that left her with catastrophic injuries and ultimately led to the amputation of her left arm.
Stewart was swimming between the flags at Coogee Beach in Sydney in June when she was attacked by the four-metre great white.
60 Minutes’ exclusive interview with Coogee shark attack survivor Leah Stewart. Picture: 60 Minutes
During the interview, Stewart revealed extraordinary new details about the ordeal, including coming face-to-face with the shark and the split-second decisions she made while desperately fighting for survival.
However, parts of her account were called into question by the hosts of Melbourne’s Fox 101.9 breakfast show on Tuesday morning, with Brendan Fevola, Kate Langbroek and Nick Cody suggesting Stewart had put “a lot of mayo” on her remarkable survival story – particularly her description of what was going through her mind during the attack.
“I’ve never been in this position and I wouldn’t understand what would go on, but if a shark was attacking you, you wouldn’t have much time to think,” Fevola said.
“No, most people say you don’t even know what’s happening,” agreed co-host Langbroek.
The trio then turned their attention to a particularly confronting moment from Stewart’s interview, in which she revealed she deliberately punched the shark with her left arm because it was the limb she was more “willing to lose”.
“I was on the couch with my wife going, ‘She’s lying! Too much time to think!’ You’re not thinking all that are you?” Fevola said.
“Come on, oh right or left? Like bro, you are amazing – you punched a shark in the face and survived – but you’re not thinking all that,” he added.
“That’s a lot of mayo.”
“I was on the couch with my wife going, ‘She’s lying! Too much time to think!’ You’re not thinking all that are you?” Fevola said. Picture: Instagram @thefox1019
Adelaide-based shark expert Andrew Fox has come to Stewart’s defence, drawing on the remarkable experience of his own father, Rodney, who survived a great white shark attack in South Australia in 1963.
Fox said his father’s recollection of his near-death experience was similarly vivid and detailed, arguing the brain can process an extraordinary amount of information in the space of mere moments.
“The doubters are always jumping in with opinion but anybody that’s been through near-death experience will know an infinite number of possibilities are processed by your brain in microseconds,” Fox told the Daily Mail.
“My dad has told me the same detailed story a hundred times over the years.
“At first he actually thought he had been hit by a train and then he remembered he was underwater so he thought it must have been a submarine and then he realised it was a shark.”
Adelaide-based shark expert Andrew Fox has come to Stewart’s defence, drawing on the remarkable experience of his own father, Rodney, who survived a horrific great white shark attack in South Australia in 1963. Picture: Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions
Rodney Fox was just 23, newly married and spearfishing off Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, when the great white clamped its jaws around his torso.
In a desperate attempt to break free, Rodney gouged the shark’s eyes, but during the struggle ripped his arm across its teeth before grabbing the predator in a bear hug as the surrounding water filled with blood.
He was on the verge of drowning when he managed to swim towards the surface, only to discover the shark was still behind him.
Rodney kicked at the predator before it instead swallowed a fish float attached to his belt.
His ordeal remains one of the most severe great white shark attacks ever survived.
Rather than turning him against the animals, the attack sparked Rodney’s lifelong fascination with great white shark, a passion he later passed on to his son.
The pair have worked together through Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions in South Australia and established the Fox Shark Research Foundation, dedicated to the research and conservation of great white sharks.
Fox’s defence of Stewart comes as the radio hosts face a growing backlash over their response to the young mum’s account, with listeners accusing them of unfairly questioning someone who had survived an almost unimaginable ordeal.
Nick Cody, Fifi Box and Brendan Fevola from Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick breakfast show. Picture: Supplied/Fox FM.
“Bit harsh Fev, she knew the shark was there for over a minute before it attacked her, I dont think Fev listened to the whole story,” wrote one listener on the show’s Facebook page.
“Wow, sounds like Fev is a bit jealous of the attention this incredibly brave woman has been receiving,” added another listener.
A third penned: “If you can’t be dramatic about a shark almost eating you alive, what can you be dramatic about?”
Stewart has not publicly responded to the suggestion that she “added mayo” to her account, while Fevola, Langbroek and Cody have also yet to publicly address the backlash.