“I’ve never felt fear in my life like what I felt in the jaws of that white pointer.

“I went straight into its mouth, front onwards. Half my body was in its throat. It was like being in a dark cave.”

Once free from the beast, Eric swam to the surface in a cloud of his own blood – fearful that the animal would follow his scent and attack him once again.

“It was just circling around my flippers, round in round in tight circles,” he added.

“The big round black eye, 5 inches wide, was staring straight into my face with just not one hint of fear, of any boat, or any human, or any other animal in the sea.”

Eric was helped back onto the boat by his son, where he was then treated for severe cuts to his severe cuts to his head, torso and arm.

Recalling the experience in an interview with The Sun, he added: “I started to get shaken horizontally with a really hard threshing motion. I thought ‘is this the end, is this what is like to die’.

“I was actually being eaten alive.”

Eric was praised by co-worker Dennis Luobikis, who told Reuters: “He was actually bitten by the head … the shark swallowed his head.

“The brunt of the bite was taken by his lead weight vest. It’s all over your torso. Eric said to me at the wharf that his weight vest saved him.”

Dennis went on to praise his ‘tough’ friend for how he handled the experience, saying: “He pushed his abalone chisel into the shark’s head while it was biting, and it let him go and swam away.

“Eric is a tough boy – he’s super fit. But I would say that would test anyone’s resolve, being a fish lunch.”