"A really big Great White shark came up and took a bite, and he was screaming out…"
A fifteen-year-old boy has died after being hit by a shark at Wilsons Headland at Wooli Beach, north of Coffs Harbour, this afternoon.
Mani Hart-Deville was hit in the legs by what is being called a “ten-foot Great White”.
“Several boardriders came to his assistance before the injured teen could be helped to shore,” NSW Police said in a statement. “First aid was rendered for serious injuries to his legs and despite CPR efforts to revive him, he died at the scene.”
The joint is as secluded as it gets around those parts, dirt road in then you gotta walk.
An hour from anywhere between Coffs Harbour and Grafton.
A local resident, Helen Dobra, told Nine News, “He said that he was in the water and a really big Great White shark came up and took a bite, and he was screaming out. Then the surfer said the shark came again for another attack … and another surfer actually bravely went and tried to get the shark off him and then they pulled him out of the water.”
I spoke to a Wooli surfer who said he’d “seen more sharks in two months than I’ve seen in my whole life.”
It’s the second shark attack fatality on the stretch of coast in just over a month.
Queensland surfer Rob Pedretti died after being attacked by a “twelve-to-fifteen-foot Great White” at Salt Beach, in front of popular holiday resorts Peppers Salt Resort and Spa and Mantra on Salt, forty miles north of shark-attack hotspot Byron Bay, and roughly three hours drive from today’s attack.
All nearby beaches closed etc.
Advice: carry a tourniquet, know how to use it.
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That’s bullshit when they won’t let hunters willingly reduce some of the population of overpopulated animals and use it for food for themselves or their family and friends. Most hunters have to pay for their tags too. But then the govt. spends all this money on helicopters and other costs including wages for all the people involved. Just to accomplish the exact same outcome, reducing overpopulation of said species.
It’s kind of a sore spot for me.
Really boils my beans!
Bison. Salmon. Other forms of food. Yes we have too many humans. Tax having kids. Pay people to not have kids. Until we take ecology seriously then we live boxed in cities or go underground. Or get rid of our corn subsidies and reinhabit the plains.
They’re apex predators. Maybe stop culling their food sources and destroying their habitats? Then they’d not eat people. First Nations people lived near grizzlies for 15k years. Seems they got along pretty good. Same with sharks–stop over fishing the fucking oceans (looking at you, China), and they’d have enough food to eat. People need to take an ecosystem perspective and stop cherry picking from the trophic pyramid.
How do we stop China? Are you happy with GMO foods? Are we to have a world one child policy? Do we all sing Kumbaya afterwards?
China is imploding on its own filth. But yes they are out to be the new world order. Big issue. No easy answer. And demographic data suggests their 1 child policy was not even effective. Malthus may turn out to be humanity’s best prophet.
If there’s no easy answer, until we see China getting its act together and see the ecology return to normalcy (whatever that means) do we just let surfers die or do we take active measures (like installing baited drum lines) to keep surfers safe?
kill everything. people have been 2nd class citizens of earth for far too long!
15years old.
Just devastating. No other words for it.
R.I.P
This^. Warm and fuzzy liberalism in action. LOL
Nah, just idiots in cities who don’t know ecology. But better than “land rights” people who want their tax bailouts on failed ranching and logging operations.
its difficult to imagine you have missed one but you did. About 4 weeks ago a nonfatal attack near exmouth WA. It wasn’t a GW but it made the papers. Deepest sympathy to the kids family and friends.
Poor family and community. That’s heavy.
I was at South West Rocks all this week and a 4m GW came though horseshoe beach. No idea if that’s normal or not, but only 100 clicks south of Winnie.
Did it come right into that little bay? We holiday there a lot. I thought that’d be the safe spot. That Shark receiver seems to run pretty hot, though.
It’s been hanging out there, hoping it fucks off soon
Dead one on beach today – only mako however been hooked and left for dead which not cool – been plenty around here
Kid was only 15 so RIP
Anecdotally it’s the fact that Great Whites are protected from fishing and are now booming. I don’t know whether that applies to Grey Nurses.
Not any easy solution if the solution is ‘kill all the sharks’. Simply put, the city-dwellers won’t agree to it.
I have a pact with the sharks: I won’t eat them if they don’t eat me.
No flake with you fish & chips?
There’s a predator/prey imbalance. In the United States we have successfully reintroduced wolves into territories that had seen no packs for years. It started, i believe, with reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone, to much success. Multiple packs. Packs have expanded territorial claim beyond the borders of Yellowstone Park, and nature has been “allowed” to sort predator/prey balance on its own, to a point. The hunting of wolves is allowed beyond the borders of Yellowstone because maintenance of prey populations demands that there never be imbalance. Montana. Wyoming. In those States tags for wolves are issued. Wolves are harvested. Balance is achieved because work and effort is put forth to maintain a balance. It’s time to look at shark populations, particularly great whites just like wolves in North America. There’s clearly an imbalance in predator/prey populations. There’s no reason to allow environmentalists to run roughshod over public safety.
I read a great novel on the wolf issue – iirc it was called “The Loop”. Can’t rember the author. Edit: Nicholas Evans. Great read.
Unfortunately, here in the antipodean paradises of Aus and NZ we have all manner of govt organisations that know much, much better than any stupid surfer and as everyone knows in this part of the world comm fishermen are the spawn of Satan and know fuckall.
There is the perfect govt funding model – dismiss any and all opinion as being unqualified – enter, Science saves sharks ! A green touchy feely point for the townies who represent about 90% of the electorate. So to hell with common sense, what is that anyway …. some anecdotal feeling that you think you’re right ? Common sense ha, science has kicked that to the sideline.
So sad for the family – 15 years old … that’s shit.
Tourniquet ? Can’t hurt to have one handy. Good call D.
Many uses for tourniquets beyond stemming blood loss, too.
Eesh
slater story?
Can you share some pictures?
Yeah it’s crazy- but most of the population here in oz love spouting the old line- it’s their home. If you dont want to get eaten, don’t go in the ocean. They are the sheltered city folk gorging themselves on sushi.. Simplistic to say the least..
Protect the apex predator and commercially smash all his food- we have fucked with the system. Its our responsibility to manage it as best we can now. Plus they protected them with not a clue of how many there actually are.
We need a billionaire to buy up all the orcas from sea world and unleash them..
Or we just all donate to Sea Sheperd and they ram more fishing fleet boats that are raping our oceans bare.
And the Indians possibly ate the bears too if they could get an arrow or spear in it’s heart!!
Don’t be afraid of animals Otto.
Are you kidding me?!
I can’t even approach a rib-eye without first arming myself with a steak knife.
I loved my recent whale shark diving experience. 16 people on a boat 3 kms out to sea. So frothing to dive in the deep blue sea and get close to the big animal. No one seemed to have any fear and other shark encounters were talked up by the guides as lucky extra encounters. There is no way these non swimming non surfing guys would jump off a boat for a surf out there!!
I did a dive trip down to La Paz at the tip of Baja for a week where I got to dive with schooling hammerheads. It was an amazing sight sitting at 60ft. looking up at 70+ hammerheads cruising along a canyon wall.
do you understand that there is a big difference between Wolves and GWS;s?
Are you serious about harvesting ?
Do you know that there are GWS;s that have been tagged , and are tracked, you can even follow them on an app, which I have used when I go up to the Ranch!
Otto at this stage in History..not a lot of people would consider anything in the USA as credible, hopefully …….”the Lone Ranger” ……will call up Tonto and will deal with any and all threats , even the imaginary ones!
I’m talking about GWs in Australia, not here in the US.
And when dealing with wildlife management, such management includes predator numbers. Particularly those wolves or GWs that have become an issue, either cause they’re feeding on livestock, or live surfers.
So pray tell where you has your information come from on sharks , especially GWS’s on the East Coast of Austrlia?
We have a bit of a different notion/facts here in Australia , that GWS’s on the East Coast are where a large proportion are Juveniles . just wondering how many people in the USA actually are killed by wolves?
I learn everything about sharks from Beach Grit.
I’m not saying people are being killed by wolves in the US. What I am saying is that much like GWS, wolves were endangered, even nonexistent in regions where packs had hunted and lived in the past. The wolves were reintroduced, packs began thriving again, numbers increased and there was a healthy population. Much like GWS, wolves are efficient hunters and can pose problems for humans. People eat lots of beef, and bison, and wolves can from time to time threaten herds. When wolves become a problem, wolves are harvested under legally issued tags.
You won’t find environmentals arguing against killing wolves when population numbers are exceeding prey availability. With GWS, environmentals shouldn’t argue about killing GWS that are feeding too close to populated areas where there aren’t seal rookeries, but there are many surfers.
here in OZ sharks have been part of our enviroment forever…so down here in the Southern Ocean , we have BIG GWS’s seen em all my life , big as bloody submarines…..but hardly ever attacks……seems like on the East Coast is where all the juveniles( up to 12′) spend their teenage years learning to hunt…where there is a lot of fish……
I get your point about the wolves….easy to see count and keep an eye …but we are still learning about sharks , and we have recorded big GWS’s coming from South Africa via Indo , down our West coast , then cruise along our southern shores , up the East Coast to the Great Barrier reef , then they turn around and head back to South Africa…
I was in San Clemente a few years back when there were Junior GWS’s everywhere , you could see up to 10 just off the pier…all feeding on rays etc….this was after the wettest Californian Winter in ?years where all the river mouths were flushed out….then became the summer of sea life exploding off the Californian Coast as the ocean was full of nutrients…….
There are so few deaths from sharks , and it;s a bummer , but it’s us who choose to surf or not…..I have empathy for the victims and their families , as do I for all the kids who have suicided , 4 just in our local school……just sayin….
If a species has been introduced into an area and their population grows beyond balance, then yes hunting should be an option i.e. foxes in Australia, BUT if a species is naturally occurring and its food source has been over fished by humans, why in thee fuck should they be killed/ hunted?
You understand everything you celebrated in this post up to the final sentence when you get your Otto Dig in, was because of environmentalists? And that the reason there’s culling of wolves in the states you mention is because of ranchers? There’s no reason to allow Republican ranchers to run roughshod over ecosystem health.