"One of the locals was chased in last night by a big shark, then this shows up this morning…"
Four years back, Queensland surfer Rob Pedretti died after being attacked by a ten-foot Great White shark at Salt Beach, in front of popular holiday resorts Peppers Salt Resort and Spa and Mantra on Salt, and forty miles north of shark-attack hotspot Byron Bay.
Poor bastard had his leg ripped off in the jaws off a fired up Great White. He did not survive the attack.
Soft, wintery day. You get a lot of them around here this time of year.
Warm sun, high cloud drifting in. Clean babyfood with little cats paws of wind ruffle on it. A fit wiry sixty year old would think of nothing but enjoying a little shred.
Day before the attack was a dreamy day. Head-high sets rifling down the bank. Moderate crowd. The water was stacked with bait. Slivers of cut glass in the morning sun. A yellowtail kingfish the size of a small pony swam straight past me. Crystal clear water.
There’s no safety in that. We’ve learnt the published guidelines on avoiding White shark attacks are straight up BS. They like clear water, sunshine, small surf. The mistaken identity theory was the first casualty. White sharks, we learnt, are curious to aggressive.
What makes a looker, into a circler, into a bumper then a biter we don’t know.
Neither will Rob Pedretti or his buddies that tried to drag him in after the attack. The attack happened around ten am.
Paramedics were there by 10.40. The police cat scrambled from Tweed Heads, went out the bar, turned south, went past Fingal headland, then Kingscliff creek and the rocky reefy corner of the coast before it got to the open stretch of beach in front of a series of resorts and a new suburb called Casuarina.
That took just under an hour. Rob was already gone by then.
Under a blue sheet on the beach, soul hopefully transporting to a more peaceful place.
Yesterday, on the same stretch of sand, a Great White shark, ten feet or so, beached itself.
“A crazy site this morning down the road. Word has it one of the locals was chased in last night by a big shark, then this shows up this morning. We reckon potentially was chasing bait fish in close through the gutter then beached itself. Never a nice site seeing any animal washed up, even if it is a gnarly white!”
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In one of the greater ironies, a rescue crew from the nearby Sea World, itself a watery prison for marine mammals, tried to shove the Great White back out to sea, eventually failing, must’ve been sick etc.
The irony wasn’t lost on anyone.
Sea world “rescue” crews. Meanwhile keeping countless animals in captivity..
And forcing dolphins to work for treats, pimping them out for their “animal adventures” where people pay hundreds to swim with them.
Obvious questions, I suppose: are you distressed by the vision of the Great White in the paws of the tractor or are you of the mind that a fish if a fish ergo what’s the prob?
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