NEARLY twenty years after surviving a shark attack which brought him international TV and tabloid fame, Mark Currie now works as a retail operations manager in Barrow.
Mark said his phone 'didn't stop for months' after he encountered a Great White Shark near Dyer Island, South Africa while diving in a cage in early 2005.
Unusually for the time, the incident was filmed as the now 52-year-old had been documenting his extensive travels across the globe.
Last year there were only 63 unprovoked attacks in the world, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, making Mark's footage even more of an outlier.
The dramatic footage shows the '18-foot' shark clamping onto the cage while Mark is submerged and then refusing to let go, baring its teeth inches from his head.
"I travelled for a lot of years," Mark said. "I left Barrow when I was 19 and travelled around Israel." He also worked as a skydiving instructor in Milan as well as visiting countries in the Middle East.
When he was in Cape Town, he went shark cage diving. "There was a couple that were in the cage when three Great Whites all above 12 foot appeared.
"This massive 18-foot Great White came. Biggest shark the captain had seen. The couple in the cage got a bit scared, I said I still wanted to go in."
The captain videoed the following events on Mark's camera. He described the shark as a 'really powerful animal' and that it took 'all his strength' not to be flung around in the cage.
He said he 'started to go underwater' and he did not want to drown in the cage so he swam up with the shark at his feet. He was hauled up back into the boat by the captain.
Mark returned to Barrow and told his remarkable story to The Evening Mail. The day after he was in The Sun.
"When it all happened it was crazy - I was jetting off everywhere. I made quite a bit of money." In one instance he said he went on a TV show with 'Michael Jackson sat there with his bodyguards.'
READ MORE: Barrow salon to close next week with building on the market
He said he was in talks with a production company to feature in a TV show called 'Diving with Sharks' as the 'shark guy' but that never materialised.
"I enjoyed it all," he said. "It's hard to explain when something like that happens to you.
"I went back to normal life afterwards. People sometimes call me shark bait."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here