The new reality.
Police and paramedics are investigating a shark attack on a surfer at Kelpies, Esperance, a pretty stretch of sand on an impossibly pretty stretch of coastline, seven hundred clicks south of Perth in Western Australia.
A large shark spotted, a surfboard found floating in the water, no surfer.
Beach closed.
“The surfboard washed up nearby to where the attack occurred and with obvious signs of shark attack,” Senior Sergeant Justin Tarasinski told reporters.“The chances of survival are obviously pretty slim considering some of the accounts that have been provided to us.”
The name Kelpies rings a bell don’t it. In 2017, teenager surfer Laticia Brouwers died in front of her family after being hit by a Great White.
Three years earlier, Sean Pollard, 23, had an arm and another hand bitten off by a Great White at the same beach.
Nine months ago, Gary Johnson, hit by a White as soon as he dived into the water off Esperance to set his anchor, killed.
Last month, I spent a fascinating hour examining the new military-grade crankshaft tourniquets of Mr Jon Cohen, the emergency department doctor who has made it his business to stem the death rate from Great White shark attacks in Australia.
Jon lives in Sydney most of the year but spends a little time each year in the ED of Esperance Hospital.
Jon knows hits by Great Whites in Esperance are a new reality.
“I know some guys who were in the ED that day (Laeticia Brouwer was killed) and it was a traumatic experience to manage. Cases like that are preventable deaths. People can act on the beach if they’re there when it happens. It might be scary to talk about but it’s reassuring to know that there is something you can do and it’s not complicated.”
He doesn’t have, or won’t share, any opinion concerning solutions to a growing population but he does have a solution post-hit. His goal is to have a shark bite kit at all the main beaches, and he runs regular classes on what to do if a White takes a limb.
Last year, Cohen told me he Cohen wanted to get a haemorrhage kit at Kelpies. He said it might make the difference between life and death if someone was attacked.
Esperance has become such a byword for Great Whites, the Discovery Channel brought a New York-based marine biologist, Dr Craig O’Connell, to the isolated town to film a documentary exploring the peculiarly aggressive nature of Esperance’s Great Whites.
“People have begun arriving at the beach after hearing about the possible shark attack, worried about if their loved one is a victim. At least one person is in tears,” reported the ABC’s Emily Smith.
(Below, watch as a Great White circles a twenty-five-foot patrol boat in Esperance, from 2017)
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I love it.
At least water is crystal clear. No problem in spotting this magnificent Great White.🦈🦈🦈
Eaten whole. Chilling.
What a bummer. Beautiful beaches there. Sand so white it looks like cocaine. I spent a few days in Cape arid surfing fun beachies in 06. Got back to the hostel in Esperance and told the owner. He was shocked and said “ ignorance is bliss”. Guess we dodged the whites.
Surfed Rottnest Island once. Beautiful beach and fun wave. Not sure I’d paddle there again, though. Right out in the food chain.
Save the Quokka ! The sharks can look after themselves …..
Lived there for a summer and used to hit a couple of times a week when I was still a kid in Perth. Remember, once, crashing my bike on the hill before Strickos, tearing hell out of my knee, dumping my bike in the bush and paddling out, seeping blood. Probs wouldn’t do it now.
Freeo would pump sans rottnest and Garden.
Here in Central California, GW numbers are on the rise fast. Can’t remember seeing so many in a season before. This happened last week trolling close to a pack of surfers on the Marin coast https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Duxbury reef?
Bingo! Way too close to the inside for comfort. It’s a regular occurrence. Loose allot of fish to them. They have a habit of biting hooked fish off just behind the head and then following it up when you run the wire.
Figured. Always got a bad feeling at the spots just north of there
Where was your attack Urchin?
South Africa.
The best shark in the line up, is the one having the most fun.
Too many sharks eating people
I’d like to see less sharks eating people
Maybe we should have less whites on our coastline, not wipe out the species but reduce their numbers.
Let ocean mammals be the top predators and let sharks less of a threat to humans take out the sick or slow fish.
It’s their ocean but we have allowed their population to boom by protecting them now it’s time to do something about it.
https://www.change.org/Redu…
Fewer sharks. Not less.
Or lesser sharks? The one today sounds like it was massive.
But it was a GREAT White, not a Lesser White.
Stop pushing your failed prescriptivism on everyone. “Less” has been a valid word in that type of usage since the English language existed, and some random person in 1770 wrote that he preferred fewer. Fast forward to today, and incompetent losers like you are pushing someone’s preference for grammatical style as though it was some hard fast rule of grammar.
speaking of incompetent losers, fewer/less/none comments from you could help.
If something can be easily discussed on an individual basis, it is ‘fewer’. Fewer men, fewer surfboards, fewer BeachGrit comments.
If it is something more usually thought of in bulk, it is ‘less’. Less milk. Less bleeding. Less of your ignorance.
I am generally tending, more and more towards enjoying the plasticity of language evolution rather than uptight prescriptivism. I bristle at fewer ‘mistakes’ everyday, but losing too much framework in our grammar makes for a less enjoyable language-tool overall.
Says the guy who wrote a song about masturbating into a sock and turning it in to an eco-friendly replacement for fibreglass.
That’s ART, darling.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
They’ll mark it down as Covid, bet.
Servo I fill up are very nice Egyptian people.
Told me months ago they had a relative die in aged care. Were told they would pay for the funeral if they could say it was C-19
I’d love to know the real, real
100% real figures
I’ll bet its similar to SARS.
Anyone who believes that 200,000 are dead in the US from Covid is a fool.
This is Sept 11 all over again.
A manufactured load of bullshit.
I think I wrote it here a few weeks back.
On am radio, a person in charge of aged care called in. He said that the people that recently died in his facility and had C-19 when they passed were called as dying from C-19, not with C-19.
Radio show host asked..well, they were old and sick, did the C-19 push them over the edge? Manager said nope, they didn’t have respiratory problems when they died,they had other issues.
Do you think that the prevalence of C-19 might’ve stretched the care system enough to not allow sufficient attention to all?
Im just a postie.
In saying that..Ive heard that Doctors are receiving the money from the government as they are out of work because of C-19.
Nobody walking through the doors for colds etc.
And the elective stuff where they make the big money was put on hold for thousands that were going to taking up beds.
We had 14 new cases last night in the whole state.
So…I’d say no.
Anyone know why this one beach is particularly sketchy? Is it just because people surf here more, or is there some other factor?
I have a theory
That there’s a lot of sharks there
And they’re quite hungry
Amazing
The poetic mind
And the scientific mind
Often coexist
Science is poetry … but it doesn’t appeal to everyone
Maybe take chico under your wing?
My wings are flapping
Like a drunk pterodactyl
Chico flys solo
He’s raw…could work out.
There’s another theory I think you’ll like.
https://www.dailymotion.com…
I like very much
If all scientists were clowns
I’d self vaccinate
Eddie beat me to it.
Tourniquet ain’t doin fuck all when the cunt of a thing swallows ya whole
Right the way across the bight and around the corner there’s spots that gave me the creeps/full on shits.
Never went back. Fucken long way from anywhere in that neck of the woods.
Ferals can have it – and good on em.
the tourniquets are awesome ratchet snow board binding style – i leave on beach hope i dont get hit, as be hard to have presence of mind to do yourself. BUT i did not like as the actually leggie too bulky
I think I’d pass out from all the blood
i know imagine trying to ratchet your own leg up??
Um…nope
I had a girlfriend like that once.
I found the sight of shredded tendons, blood vessels and broken bones alittle off putting. Blood is rather slippery. Makes using a leg rope as a torniquet difficult.
Did it change you?
Yes. Permanent disabilities ain’t no joke. Fucks with your head especially when trying to enjoy a sesh. I work on the water. See them all the time. Check out the pic I posted below. When I saw that happen, my first thought was, I wonder how long till I read another horror piece by LT or Derek…..
Unfortunately it was 3 days.
You’d be fine Bex. Adrenalin.
Our doc pal reckons having something to do, like applying a tourniquet, can sweep away the inertia of fear in an emergency.
I’d love to get a hero medal from John Howard.
Not Scomo