Australian beaches closed for shark attacks as victim tells survival tale

Australian beaches on the far north coast of New South Wales which have seen several shark attacks, including a fatal one, were closed again.

Beaches at Lennox Head were closed on Wednesday after a helicopter patrol spotted a large shark cruising near swimming areas.

It came on the same day as the latest survivor of an attack six days ago spoke for the first time after being roused from an induced coma following emergency surgery.

Craig Ison had just entered the water at Evans Head last Friday when a great white shark latched on to his left thigh, then his left arm and hand.

"Its head was right there, just gouging out my leg," the 51- year-old told local media from his hospital bed on Wednesday. "I saw it go past but it didn't think anything of it because I thought it was a dolphin and there's always dolphins out there."

"I had just got out. I was paddling to get a wave. It was my first wave," he recalled. "And boom, it just quickly turned. The bugger had me on the way back into the beach."

Ison, a former high-ranking boxer, began punching the shark, but thought he was going to die.

"He (the shark) just thrust forward and locked down, straight on to my thigh," Ison said.

"It's like he said to me, 'mate, just give up now, don't worry about fighting because I'm going to chew all your leg off. And you 're going to bleed to death and then I'm going to clean you up -- so don't even think about trying to save yourself'."

Ison said he was scared by the big grey creature savaging his body and thought he would die.

"I was looking down at it thinking I was done for, but then I thought 'no, I'm not' and started laying into him."

"I didn't have any other option than watching him chew my leg off, so I hit him."

A fellow surfer helped him ashore where he has then rushed to hospital. Endi