So many possibilities!
As mentioned three days ago, shark season has arrived in Australia with as much fanfare as the aromatic jasmine flower blossoming all over the country.
In a month or so, there have been six attacks: a bodyboarder in Western Australia (“traumatic leg injuries”), three swimmers in the same North Queensland harbour, one of which was fatal, and a surfer at Ballina with leg injuries caused by a juvenile white pointer (those kids).
At Bondi and nearby beaches, shark sightings have become commonplace.
Yesterday, the lineup was emptied at Tamarama when a shark surfaced so close to a surfer he gave it a little stroke as he jack-rabbited to shore.
And, today, the Bondi surfer and former semi-pro, Beau Walker, had beached his final wave when he saw a “fifteen-foot” shark shadowing another local surfer, Mick Malouf.
“He came running down to the water yelling, ‘Get out of the water!’ I asked him how close it was and he said it was two metres behind me,” says Malouf, who saw a wall of salmon in the wave in front “belly flopping” out of the water. “He’s seen a few sharks in his time (Beau grew up in Byron Bay) so he knows what he’s talking about.”
In response to that, and an earlier sighting at North Bondi, lifeguards closed the beach.
Meanwhile, a click or so off Moffatt Beach on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, a fifteen-foot Tiger belted a man in his kayak.
Kyle Roberts was knocked off his kayak by the shark who then circled him and his sinking craft while he radioed for help.
From ABC News.
Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLSQ) duty officer David McLean said Mr Roberts was in shock when lifeguards reached him on jet skis.
“There was no blood in the water — nothing else to attract any sharks — just came out of the blue, completely broadsided him, and as he stated, he’s very lucky to be here,” Mr McLean said.
“It had punctured the kayak — he managed to get back to the kayak and hung on and fortunately there was an air bubble at the front of the kayak which managed to keep it afloat until we could get to him.
Mr McLean said while Mr Roberts was waiting for help “he was starting to panic, especially when the shark was starting to circle him”.
“He would have been through a fair state of panic and that was evident in his voice when he was talking on the radio,” he said.
“He was paddling along in his kayak, the shark’s just hit him, knocked him up in the air, out of the kayak, and he ended up 1.5 metres from his kayak.”
Can you imagine?