A stand-up paddleboarder from Queensland's Sunshine Coast cut his wrist when he accidentally stuck his hand in the mouth of a shark he was trying to escape.

Key points: Paddleboarder Craig McDougall cut an artery in his wrist in an encounter with a shark on the Sunshine Coast

Paddleboarder Craig McDougall cut an artery in his wrist in an encounter with a shark on the Sunshine Coast He says the shark did not bite him — he inadvertently stuck his hand in the juvenile shark's mouth

He says the shark did not bite him — he inadvertently stuck his hand in the juvenile shark's mouth He got back in the same waterway hours later to avoid developing a fear after the incident

Craig McDougall, 43, goes for a sunrise paddle in the creek in front of his Pelican Waters home most mornings, and is aware of the large number of bull sharks that live in the region's rivers and waterways.

He said he even second-guessed himself when he saw what appeared to be a dorsal fin, while strapping on the leg rope of his SUP at 5:30am on Tuesday.

But Mr McDougall went ahead with his morning ritual. Then he saw a shark "travelling behind me" and felt it pulling on his leg rope.

"I could tell it was caught [in the leg rope] and it pulled me off the board," he said.

Mr McDougall then realised he was neck deep in brown water with a shark nearby.

He tried to pull against the shark, which looked like a 1-metre long juvenile bull shark, but for every foot he pulled "it pulled me three feet".

Losing ground, he decided to reach down and "try to pull the leg rope off".

He ended up sticking his hand in the shark's mouth.

"I don't think the shark bit me, it was more I shoved my hand in its mouth," he said.

"I inadvertently stuck my hand where I shouldn't have."

Craig McDougall was 'bitten' after a shark got tangled in his leg rope. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Tessa Mapstone )

The shark let go and as soon as Mr McDougall felt it detach, he "walked on water" to get to land.

"As soon as I felt the pain, I knew I'd been hit," he said.

"Then I felt this release, like a spring."

He got out of the water and then he noticed the blood.

"I saw blood pouring out of my hand, I looked up and I could see blood [reaching] the leaves of trees. It had nicked an artery," he said.

"A geyser about 3 metres high was shooting, like a hose with a hole in it.

"The spray was incredible."

Mr McDougall has a first aid certificate and knew to place pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding while he looked for help.

His mobile phone was somewhere in the creek and his calls for help to a man in a house boat nearby went unanswered.

"I was full-blown screaming to try to wake him up, but he didn't arise," Mr McDougall said.

He had to walk the kilometre back to his home while holding fast to his wrist to stop it from bleeding.

"If I moved my arm, I knew it would go. I had to keep it very still and I knew I had to calm down," he said.

He passed a few dog walkers, but they "just waved at me".

Despite the startling encounter, Craig McDougall won't be put off getting back in the water. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Tessa Mapstone )

When he went home his first call wasn't to the ambulance; it was to his father-in-law to rescue his paddle and board.

"As much as I'm worried about my health, I'm also worried about my $3,000 investment," he said.

"Then we phoned the ambos."

The ambulance service initially tweeted it was responding to a "suspected bite to the wrist", and was assessing whether the bite was from a shark at Pelican Waters, sparking a media frenzy.

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor, Kristy McAlister, said after taking Mr McDougall to the hospital it was not clear what caused the injury.

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"We don't know what caused the injury to the male patient. He does have a very small puncture wound to his left wrist," she said.

"The bleeding has been controlled and we don't know if it is a shark attack. It is a minor wound.

"The patient has done everything correctly from a first aid perspective; he has applied direct pressure to the wound, which has controlled the bleeding prior to the ambulance arriving."

Mr McDougall held his arm in the same position for "an hour" before it was able to be properly checked.

"I was worried I would faint from the amount of blood loss and it would just pour out of me like paint," he said.

The paramedic reassured Mr McDougall that because he had applied pressure to the wound straight away "it had already locked itself and rejoined".

"She [the paramedic] just had to get the gunk out and the slime from whatever it had in its mouth," he said.

Craig McDougall suffered a small put painful laceration to his arm, that spurted blood from an artery. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Tessa Mapstone )

He was taken to a Caloundra medical centre before being sent home.

Mr McDougall decided to get back in the water in the same spot on the same day, because he did not want to develop a fear because of his experience.

"I snuck down the road exactly where it occurred just to make sure all my bells are ringing the right tune," he said.

"I dived straight in and then I sat on the bank and howled like a proud alpha [male]."

He said the scar from his wound would only be "about 7 millimetres wide, it looks like a scratch". However, he reckoned it was "about an inch deep".