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**Related Video Above: Crocodile pulled from ocean in Florida in 2020.** 

QUEENSLAND, Australia (WJW) — A man is feeling grateful after failing to become a crocodile snack while snorkeling with family over the weekend.

Marcus McGowan was reportedly swimming off Cape York Coast looking at brightly colored fish and coral when a saltwater crocodile came up behind him and bit his head Saturday.

“I thought it was a shark but when I reached up I realized it was a crocodile,” McGowan said in a hospital press release. “I was able to lever its jaws open just far enough to get my head out.”

The animal fought back and bit McGowan’s hand, but he said he was quickly able to get to his group’s nearby boat. He was airlifted to a hospital, and transferred to another for treatment on puncture-related injuries to his head and hand.

McGowan said he believes the crocodile was a juvenile.

BBC news said that crocodile hunting has been banned for decades in Queensland, with the population growing from 5,000 animals in the 1970s to about 30,000. Crocodile attacks are extremely rare, however, the area around Haggerstone Island near where the incident occurred, is known as “Croc country,” according to the Department of Environment and Science (DES).

An investigation is underway to try and find the animal, although DES says it’s difficult to track crocs in open water.

“I was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time,” McGowan said.