Hero teen who saved fishing guide from deadly croc attack stuns The Project hosts

A fishing guide is lucky to be alive after a saltwater crocodile plucked him from a boat – as the 14-year-old boy who saved his life described the terrifying ordeal to stunned hosts on The Project.

Sydney man Misha Hammond and his sons Oliver, 18, and Isaac, 14, joined Northern Territory fishing guide Sean Fiumara last week for a sport fishing charter in the Top End

They set off from the Dhipirri Barra and Sportfishing Lodge in Arnhem Land, south-west of the Crocodile Islands.

The group toured some of the most famous fishing spots in the area and spent most of the day fishing without seeing a single crocodile.

But as Mr Fiumara stood on one side of the boat showing the teenagers where to cast, a 3.5 meter crocodile jumped out of the water and pulled the fishing guide in.

“It was a bit of a shock when he first fell into it. I jumped up and didn’t know what was happening – but I knew when I saw the big crocodile in the water,” Isaac said. The project on Tuesday evening.

The fearless teen grabbed Mr Fiumara as the guide tried to free himself from the saltie’s jaws.

“I grabbed him when he was in the water and pulled him in and Dad helped me pull him onto the boat,” he said.

Shocked project presenter Waleed Aly asked: ‘So Isaac, you have him back on the boat, what is the crocodile doing at the moment?’

“(It was) at the back of the boat, he followed us and tried to make another attempt to get Sean,” the teen responded.

Aly then asked what he did next, adding that it couldn’t have been fun being chased by a crocodile.

“No, it wasn’t,” Isaac said.

“Sean had to get up and splash around in the water, as if he were putting his hand in the water, to try to coax the crocodile, and then hit him with a large pole.”

Co-host Sam Taunton praised Issac for being the most ‘chill’ young man given the circumstances.

“What were you thinking, so that you know at the moment you had to reach down to save him, what was going through your mind when you reached out your hand –, like I won’t reach out my hand. I won’t raise my hand anywhere now that I think about it,” Taunton joked.

“But you reached for a crocodile to try to save it, what were you thinking?” he asked incredulously.

“Eh, I wasn’t really thinking,” said the laid-back kid from Sydney,

“I just wanted to get him out.”

Isaac agreed that the crocodile encounter was not for the faint of heart.

“It was intimidating,” he said.

“Yes, he was really angry and stayed with the boat until we actually had to drive away.”

He said Mr Fiumara’s injuries following the incident were “pretty bad”.

“He had a number of punctures in his leg and he used his hand to open the crocodile’s jaw,” he added.

“So he was in a bit of bad shape.”

Taunton asked if he would ever go fishing in Arnhem Land again.

“We’re going there in April,” Isaac joked.

Mr Fiumara’s colleague at the fishing lodge Greg Campbell had mentioned it earlier ABC Radio Darwin that he took the guide 30 km by boat to the nearest medical clinic.

The pair bounced across rough waters in ‘horrendous’ weather to Milingimbi Island, from where Mr Fiumara was flown to Darwin.

“He’s glad we took him to the clinic because at first he didn’t want to go, he thought everything would be fine,” Campbell said.

“You’re not going to get knocked underwater by a big crocodile and come out unscathed, but it lives to tell the story and that’s the most important thing.”

Mr Fiumara’s injuries included five stab wounds to his right knee and damage to his cruciate ligament and hand.

He said he owed his life to Isaac.

“Once under the water I realized what had happened, the fucker got me,” Mr Fiumara said, according to the ABC.

“I saw that he was attached to my leg… I put my left hand on the lower jaw and my right hand on the upper jaw, and managed to free my leg and kick him in the side of the head.”

He warned other fishermen to remember that crocodiles can and will jump if they see an opportunity to feed.