After two decades of the Great White being protected, this is the new reality of surfing in Australia.
The usual theatre, surfer hit by shark, paramedics, CPR on the beach, on Australia’s north coast this morning after a surfer was bitten by a suspected Great White shark at Shelley Beach, near Coffs Harbour.
The man, in his thirties, was bitten on the arm around eleven, dragged to shore, CPR, chopper, dead.
It’s the first fatal shark attack on the east coast since May, when surfer Mark Sanguinetti was killed by a fifteen-foot Great White at Tuncurry, two hours drive south, and two months since surfer Joe Hoffman survived a hit by a ten-foot Great White at Crescent Head, a little further north of Tuncurry.
Local rez Glenn Coleman told the ABC he heard the sirens and, “We pricked our ears up straight away and we knew something had happened. It’s a heavy feeling. It’s put a heavy atmosphere over the village.”
Coleman says Shelley was crowded with locals ’cause it was Father’s Day.
What’s the takeaway, here?
After two decades of the Great White being protected, this is the new reality of surfing in Australia.
So buy and learn to use a tourniquet. Most, although certainly not all, Great White hits are a bite-and-release taste test so once the shark leaves, if you’re quick a life can be saved.
If you can get a tourniquet above the wound site, your buddy has a good chance of living.
There’s an exception here.
If the shark takes off an entire leg or arm and there’s no stump, well, even a combat medic can’t stop the bleeding.
But if there’s a stump, there’s a chance, a good chance. If you act fast.
You carrying a tourniquet in your wetsuit? Or on the beach?
Before anything, before calling anyone, get it on, tight, a couple of inches above the joint.
That’s it.
No tourniquet or it’s in the car?
Get a towel. Apply as much pressure as you can where the blood is coming out. All that matters is stopping the blood.
A catastrophic attack and your buddy is going to lose consciousness in three minutes; after five minutes the outcomes are poor.
More on the Coffs attack as it comes.