Fanning Attacked by Publicity Shark While Riding Publicity Wave

Shocking footage has emerged of the moment Australian surfer Mick Fanning was attacked by a publicity shark as he arrived in Australia in earlier today.

Fanning, whose encounter with a shark made headlines this week, was seen struggling against the instantly-recognizable silhouette of one of the greatest threats in the surfing world.

Publicity sharks are common in the arrivals lounges of highly anticipated flights, but experts have been quick to ease the public’s fear that attacks are anything but rare.

“It’s not the sort of thing that members of the public need to be worried about, generally,” Armen Politzer, of the National Oceanic Research Institute, says, “These incidents are very rare and it’s unclear whether the publicity shark was actually trying to bite Fanning.”

Fanning was likewise quick to play down the threat. “It’s just one of the dangers you have to accept every time you get into the publicity water,” he says.

“You have to remember that this is their habitat. We’re the threat to them, not the other way around.”