Great White shark kills surfer
By staff writers and wires
July 11, 2004
AUTHORITIES may be hunting a Great White shark which killed a 29-year-old surfer at a West Australian surfing beach, the first fatal attack in four years.

The victim, Bradley Adrian Smith, was surfing with a friend and three other people at Left Handers beach, south of Gracetown, near Margaret River, yesterday when he was knocked off his board and mauled by the shark.

Two teenagers who pulled Mr Smith of Shoalwater, 41km south of Perth from the water said the shark was "as big as a car".

Now a shark expert says it sounds like authorities are hunting a Great White. Aquarium of Western Australia marine biologist Sasha Thompson said witness reports suggested that may be the case.

"It does sound like a Great White because of the size of the shark and the area it is in, coupled with the power it was reported to have in its jaws," Ms Thompson said.

She said it was impossible to say what triggered the attack.

"It is not really breeding season but it is whale migration season and that might have something to do with it depending on what type of shark it is," Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson, who has studied sharks for several years and undertaken shark tagging research expeditions, said sharks were more likely to attack males than females.

While it remained unclear what species of shark killed the surfer, she said Great Whites were known to spend time on WA's southern coast in winter before moving further north to meet whales returning to southern waters.

Mr Smith died at the scene from extensive injuries and blood loss following the attack at Left Handers beach yesterday, police spokesman Peter Reeves said.

A post-mortem examination would be carried out on Tuesday to determine the exact cause of death.

Witnesses to yesterday's attack have told Sky News a man swam to shore and called 000 saying his mate had been attacked by a shark.

The dead man's name was expected to be released later today, and the victim's 36-year-old brother was due to speak to the media at Margaret River, police said.

Authorities closed the beach after the attack and erected shark warning signs.

The shark apparently took less than a minute to fatally maul the surfer.

The attack - possibly by two sharks - was witnessed by several locals, many of them teenagers.

One fought with his emotions as he recounted the ordeal to reporters at Margaret River today.

"It just looked like a normal shark that you see thrashing around but they are normally reef sharks but these (two sharks) were just heaps bigger, then we saw blood coming up," he told ABC radio.

The witnesses said the surfer had no chance of surviving because of the ferocity of the attack, which they said lasted only about 45 seconds.

They saw the victim try to push the shark away but it was too big and strong, they told radio 6PR.

After the witnesses realised what had happened to the man, they dragged his body back to the shore hoping they would be able to save him.

But they said the man had died before he reached the shore after suffering massive bleeding and horrific injuries.

The attack at Left Handers beach – considered a relatively safe beach for junior surfers – is the second in WA in almost four years.

On November 6, 2000, just north of Perth's popular Cottesloe Beach, 49-year-old swimmer Ken Crew, on his regular morning swim, died after he lost his leg in a shark attack.

Fisheries officials were given permission to kill the shark, believed to have been a white pointer up to four metres in length, but they never found it.

In response to the 2000 attack, the WA government introduced daily summer aerial shark patrols.

Several other shark attacks have occurred along WA's coastline since then, but the fatality yesterday was the first since Mr Crew died.

Police and fisheries officers today boarded a search vessel to hunt for the shark which took the 29-year-old.

Fisheries officer Tony Cappelluti said if the shark was located, officers were authorised to kill it.

"If they're going to become a danger to the public, or if we believe they already have been responsible for a fatal or serious attack, then I think the community would expect us to try to alleviate that risk," he told ABC radio.

Local surfer Bart Mulder said yesterday's attack was distressing but it would not stop him surfing.

"We were going to go down to the beach for a surf and a couple of blokes came up and said 'Don't go down there – somebody's been bitten in half by a shark'," he told the ABC.

"It's the first shark fatality down in the south-west here. It's hard to say how I feel about it, but it won't stop me surfing."

AAP

La vache, ca fout bien les boules !!! Le retour Des dents de la Mer

Apparemment, il semblerait q le Grand Blanc ayant ete hyper protege ces dernieres annees; il y en aurait "trop" a nouveau ds les eaux..... l'ecosysteme marchait tres bien tout seul avant q l'homme aprenti-sorcier ne commence a f***** son nez dedans, voila ce q je pense moa!