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It came at him like a missile, a dark shape across an underwater stretch of white sand, to the coral bombora on the Great Barrier Reef where Rick Bettua had just speared a Maori Sea Perch. It came faster than he'd ever seen a bull shark move - pectoral fins down, spearing towards him the instant his trigger clicked. He'd seen a million of them during his lifetime of diving. Often docile. Occasionally on the hunt. This one was too aggressive for this time of day, for water this cool. It was NRL grand final day, exactly seven weeks ago. Everything about it was wrong.

A spearfisherman who saved a father from a shark attack has opened up on his own shark encounter after being savagely mauled on the Great Barrier Reef. Rick Bettua was spearfishing on Britomart Reef off Hinchinbrook Island in Far North Queensland when he was attacked by a four-metre bull shark in October. The 59-year-old was ambushed by the aggressive shark underwater and bitten on the upper thigh after trying to fend off the predator using his speargun. Mr Bettua was left with catastrophic wounds and was unable to see his flippers through his blood as he swam to the surface.