Fatal Shark Attack #5...........WEST OZ !

A Surfer in his mid 20's, was BITTEN IN HALF !   A Great White, 13 to 16 feet long, is blamed.     Half a torso is all they recovered.     Yikes, is an understatement!

Always bad news to hear this…heart goes out to the loved ones…nature can be a such a savage thing…

 

 

hi Bill !

 

 yes, very sad [ and quite scary ] news , indeed .

 

  there have been a LOT of shark alarms going off on the metro beaches here lately , too ...warm water , whale migration , seals ...

 

  with this latest attack , so far they have recovered no body , last I heard .....

 

....the guy on the jetski had his ski 'nudged' [his words] by the large shark , as he tried to pull the guy to safety . The shark came back , and the body was gone .

The poor other guys in the water at the time . 

And the poor family of the guy . My heartfelt sympathy to you all.

The guy's mate he drove there with was in DEEP shock , poor kid.  [ Margaret River is a fair drive away from Wedge . ]

 

 I have surfed this [wedge]  area , NUMEROUS times ...  [ it has always 'felt' sharky , to me ...and sometimes,  seeing decomposing whales near the island ,  THAT doesn't put your mind at ease , I can TELL you !]

 

 I have surfed it , and taken water shots there , with Rowan , and have also been up there with Ross ['P-Co'] once ...... there are water shots in quite a few of my old 'chipfish61' and 'chipfins61' threads . It is only an hour and a bit's drive north of here ...depending on beach access , that is !  This time of year [winter] the beach DISAPPEARS , so four wheel driving can be VERY risky at times .

 

  'Stuey' took water photos of me , about 40 minutes or so south of there , twelve days ago...

Due to a whale washed up on the shore at Wedge , a lot of surfers had avoided the area [as you do!]

 

  I felt a bit 'spooked' this week , here, surfing by myself , on tuesday and wednesday ...  and then Ross informed me that , on that tuesday , a surfer at Trigg [about maybe ? 700 metres ? up the beach] , had had a 7am face to face with a large great white ...nice . I had surfed 8-10am , alone ...overcast , glassy , empty lefts ...then I felt it was time to go  [you know the 'goosebumps' feeling you get , sometimes ? well...]

 

 I wondered ...this guy's encounter could easily have been the same 5 metre [16' 6" ?] great white , that bit a guy's surf ski at Mullaloo beach [ about 15 miles north of here] , three weeks ago ...he's lucky to be alive , by the way .... a mate pulled him onto his ski , to rescue him ....

 

  there is also a whale decomposing off rottnest island at the moment , I was told [ 'Rotto'  is , oh ,  ?about 8 miles ? or so west of where I surf ...]

 

  When Stuey and I were nearish to wedge last week , a guy told us that up to 8 bronze whalers [sharks] had been  sighted in the area , the days before .

 

  EVERY year this happens between , oh june to november , even ?

 ... when whales , whale pups , seals , salmon , are all in the area .... no surprises , really .

 

Wedge will be VERY empty this week

 

  It was there , on september 21st , 2010 , at exactly 12pm [midday] , on a beautiful , sunny , cloudless , day  , that I had a LARGE bronze whaler swim straight underneath me , while I was [luckily] lying on my board  ...see "faaaark " [?] , "shaaaark " [?] thread   [ I forget WHICH  title I used at the time ?

...I was in SHOCK , for quite a while after THAT [three days out of the water , from memory ? ]  

 

...meanwhile ...

 

 here , this morning ,

 

it is overcast , empty , onshore , already ...no watershots today ! [I took some yesterday arvo , but had to take a few crew to photograph ...emptiest beaches I have EVER seen , for school holidays , plus weekends , lately .... now sharks are being tagged and we have electronic shark warning devices off the coast here now , I hear alarms going off a few times a week , when I'm home . Glad I have plenty of FINS to work on , when I am not surfing , or taking water shots ....

 wedgeshark 

 

  ben

 

p.s. -

 

  to the people that say "kill the lot of them" .....

 

just to put things into some sort of perspective here , if people get killed in cars , do we go hunting for the driver responsible ??

 do cigarette companies get closed down for causing millions of deaths worldwide , over the decades / centuries from lung cancer ? 

 likewise with alcohol .... does alcohol get banned for being responsible for millions of deaths , domestic violence , and divorces ?    [just to keep things in perspective , here , is all...]

Scary stuff but agreed Ben we are more like ly to be killed by a bus or probably our own boards than a shark also we are in there world when we enter the sea.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/surfer-taken-by-shark-north-of-perth/story-e6frg13u-1226425990874