'I saw shark eat my buddy'

A man fought for his life against a great white shark before it dragged him off and killed him during a diving trip.

Justin Rowntree told the Coroner's Court in Adelaide today about the attack on 23-year old Jarrod Stehbens at Glenelg in August 2005. The pair was carrying out research for the University of Adelaide at the time. "I was looking at Jarrod when I felt a whack on the back which rotated me around," Mr. Rowntree said.
"Initially I thought it was a dolphin but pretty quickly I realized it was not." Mr Stehbens, a "highly experienced diver" then fought for his life against the 5m shark.
"It went straight towards Jarrod, initially he whacked it directly on the snout and it seemed to go away momentarily," Mr. Rowntree said. "Then it came back and took his leg and dragged him under ... it happened like a flash." The students had almost finished their dive for cuttlefish eggs at the popular Glenelg Tyre Reef. Mr. Rowntree said the dive would have been Mr. Stehbens' last in South Australia before he went to live in Germany.
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