Another brother lost…
You lost count of the surfers killed by Great Whites in Australia in the past, say, year or so?
And these are attacks on surfers, not swimmers, divers or a lil kid on a Tassie fishing boat.
(And it don’t include attacks that didn’t kill the surfer, like Joe Hoffman, the twenty-five-year-old shredder whose arm was destroyed by a Great White at Crescent Head in July.)
Let’s count ‘em.
Mark Sanguinetti, 59, hit by Great White, killed, Tuncurry, NSW, May 18, 2021.
Andrew Sharpe, 52, hit by a Great White at Kelpies in Esperance, October 9, 2020. Never seen again.
Nick Slater, 46, hit, killed by a Great White at the Supabank, Queensland, September 8, 2020.
Mani Hart-Deville, 15, hit, killed by a Great White, Wooli Beach, NSW, July 11, 2020.
Rob Pedretti, 60, hit, killed, by a Great white, Salt Beach, NSW, June 7, 2020.
You see a pattern? No?
Yes?
Before yesterday’s hit gets lost in a fog of shrugged shoulders and smug pronouncements that humans don’t belong in the ocean, let’s read what the grim reality of a Great White attack is like from the perspective of observers who saw the attack, saw the aftermath.
“I saw paramedics performing CPR on him for about an hour and a half trying to save them.”
“It didn’t look good. I’ve been surfing for 22 years on Emerald Beach and there’s never been an attack in my knowledge like this. I really feel for the dude’s family — it’s a popular beach. I’ll get back in water but not for a while.”
A weeping paramedic,
“A male in his approximate late 20s, sustained significant injuries to his upper body, which has resulted in major bl — I can’t even say that… It was a devastating for everybody on the beach this morning. A number of local surfers and bystanders came to the aid of this man, they were incredibly brave in a very challenging situation.”