A teenage boy who spent two terrifying hours treading water off the central Queensland coast wondered if it was "the end" before being rescued by a passing boat.
Paramedics said Lochie Brodie was lucky to be alive after he fell off his grandparents' boat about 12 nautical miles from Gladstone on Sunday afternoon.
The 14-year-old said he had been walking up to the front deck when he slipped and fell into the choppy water below without a life jacket.
"I was just like screaming out for my gramps because he couldn't have heard me because he's deaf," he told the Nine Network on Monday.
Lochie said he had started swimming towards the nearest island when a 2.5m shark "came out of nowhere".
"The first thing I did was just stand still," he said.
"I was kind of just screaming in my head not to scream out."
The shark left him alone and Lochie said he started swimming "pretty heavily" again.
"Then I started getting really tired," he said.
"I was just thinking like ok, is this the end?"
His grandparents only realised he was missing once they had returned to Gladstone Marina.
Rescuers launched an air search but he was spotted in the interim by another boat.
Owner Stephen Cartright said it was lucky he and his partner found him at all.
"It's like a needle in a haystack out there," he told Nine.
Lochie's mum Natalie Bevan said her teenager had a sore chest, back, arms and aching muscles from all the "dog paddling".
"He was treading water and every time he saw a boat go past arms in the air screaming like crazy, he's very fortunate," she told The Australian.
Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Chris Pereira said Lochie had treaded water for about two hours.
"The average person could tread water without much difficulty for about 30 minutes," he said on Monday.
"For the boy, he was very, very lucky to survive.
"The boy states he did this remarkable act without the aid of a life jacket as well."
Lochie was taken to Gladstone Hospital for treatment but has since been discharged.
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