Mauricio Hoyos still remembers the pressure that the jaws of a female Galapagos shark, over 3m (10ft) in length, exerted on his skull.

The animal had lunged at him with astonishing speed, giving him barely enough time to duck his head in a last ditch effort to protect his jugular vein.

“When it closed its jaw, I felt the pressure of the bite, and then, after what I think was a second, it opened it again and it let me go,” Hoyos told BBC Mundo from his home in Baja California, Mexico, a little over month after surviving the incident.

Hoyos, a marine biologist with over 30 years of experience studying sharks in their natural habitat, was on a research trip in Costa Rica when he was attacked by the shark in September.

Less than two months on, and still bearing the scars from the attack on his face, he describes his recovery as “incredible” - and says he even hopes to encounter his assailant again.