The predator had bitten off the back of his kayak and the watercraft was sinking off the Australian coast.

A police boat rescued a man after a shark bit the back off his kayak and left him sinking off the Australian coast, police said.

The 39-year-old man made an emergency phone call from his damaged watercraft after the attack on Sunday in Moreton Bay off the east coast city of Brisbane, a police statement said.

The Brisbane water police responded to the call and were able to track his location with the help of planes coming in to land at nearby Brisbane Airport, police said.

Police retrieved the man on Sunday afternoon as well as his formerly 6.5-meter (21-foot) kayak, which was missing its stern. The man was uninjured “although quite shaken and glad to be out of the water,” the statement said.

He was fortunate

Police Sgt. Gordon Thiry said the man was fortunate to have been quickly found.

He urged people heading out on the water to wear a life jacket and carry an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, or EPIRB.

The man had been paddling with eight friends to an island when his kayak was attacked 8 kilometres (5 miles) from shore.