A man surfing on Australia’s north coast was mauled by a “huge” 9 ft shark, which left him with a chunk missing from his forearm.
Surfer Dave Pearson and his six mates were ready to call it a day when the shark attacked the 48-year-old at Headland Beach, near Crowdy Head, about 6.30pm.
The Coopernook local had been swimming in the rough surf for several hours before the beast attacked him – severing his arm and causing lacerations to his face.
It is the second shark attack this week, with 24-year-old woman Lisa Mondy attacked off Jimmys Beach at Port Stephens last Tuesday.
Crowdy Beach Surf Life Saving caretaker Adam Eady was one of the first on the scene to help Mr Pearson when his friends brought him to shore.
“One of the surfers ran over to me and said there was a guy being attacked by a shark so I bolted over there with a first aid kit and oxygen tank,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“He was very lucky to come away from that without serious injuries.
“The shark bit through his board – if it hadn’t of been there it would have ripped him in half.”
It is believed the shark that attacked Mr Pearson was most likely a bull shark.
He was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in a conscious and stable condition.
A shark grabbed a woman’s face and almost took her arm off when she fell from her wakeboard north of Newcastle, Australia.
Glen Ramplin, a crewman on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was part of the team that flew the woman to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital after the attack off Jimmys Beach.
A hospital spokeswoman said she was in a stable condition.
The woman, 24, who works for a local paragliding company, went out on a boat to wakeboard with friends. “She came off the wakeboard and as the boat came back around, the shark grabbed hold of her face,” Mr Ramplin said.
“It’s got her a second time on the left upper arm and it’s pretty much taken her arm off.”
“The bite on her arm is all the way to the bone.”
Mr Ramplin said the woman was conscious while she was in the helicopter.
“[She was] obviously in very deep shock, I guess, she’s in a very serious condition.”
An experienced abalone driver is presumed to have died after he was mauled by two huge sharks off the coast of South Australia.
Peter Clarkson, 49, was surfacing from his dive in the late afternoon when the sharks, believed to be great whites, attacked 15 miles off the coast of Coffin Bay.
A widescale sea and air search in difficult conditions has failed to turn up any sign of his body.
Inspector Glen Sickerdick from South Australian Police said an investigation would be held into the incident.
“At this stage we haven’t recovered the body. The body didn’t return to the surface once it was taken by the sharks,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The ferocious attack was witnessed by the skipper of the fishing boat from which Mr Clarkson was working. The man was later treated for “significant shock”.
A man was bitten by a shark in Exmouth, AU today, requiring about 50 stitches in a wound on his arm.
Police said the the man was snorkelling on the west side of Exmouth in Lakeside Sanctuary with his wife when he was bitten on the elbow by an unidentified shark.
The 59-year-old man was taken to Exmouth hospital where he received about 50 stitches to his right arm.
An eight-year-old girl is recovering after being bitten by a shark on Australia’s far north coast. Police say the girl was wading with friends in less than 3 feet of water in the mouth of the Cudgen Creek at about five oclock yesterday afternoon.
She suffered cuts to both legs in the attack and was treated at the hospital. Police believe a juvenile bull shark or wobbegong could be responsible for the attack.
The sighting of a great white shark has closed beaches in the Margaret River region in Western Australia’s southwest.
A beachgoer spotted the large shark about 11.20am (WST) today about 350m off Gas Bay south of the Margaret River mouth.
Beaches were been closed from the river mouth to Gas Bay for 24 hours as a precaution. They will be reopened at 12 noon tomorrow (Friday) as long as there are no further sightings.
Nineteen-year-old Elyse Frankcom had been hosting a swim-with-the-dolphins tour for Rockingham Wild Encounters when a shark bit into her hip and left buttock yesterday. The attack occurred off the north end of Garden Island Naval Base. Luckily for her, as the shark bit her, it brushed aside another man who grabbed hold of the shark’s tail, which caused it to let go.
Elyse then started to sink to the bottom but the man grabbed her and brought her to the surface and got her back on board the boat.
The attack comes only 10 weeks after Busselton surfer Nick Edwards was killed by a great white off Gracetown in WA’s South-West. And the attack happened in an area just 35km north of Port Kennedy, where father-of-three Brian Guest was mauled to death while snorkelling with his son in December 2008.
Ms Frankcom is recovering in Royal Perth Hospital.
Michael Maguire of Morningside said he was kayaking along Norman Creek in Brisbane, AU at about 7.10am when he saw a “very big fish” in the water. It was bigger than his kayak and the fin came about 12 to 18 inches out of the water. Maguire paddled over to a jetty and hung on.
Being a teacher, Maguire said his first concern was the risk to children playing in the water and people dangling their feet in the creek from jetties.
Sharks have been seen diving out of the water for bats, fueling speculation that this behavior is a new way for them to find prey. Dog owners have been warned to keep animals away from the river banks at sunrise and sunset.
