Surfers warned of “expected” shark attack after dolphin found bitten in half at popular surfing reserve

“For a shark to do that it would have to be a Great White and twelve-to-fifteen feet at least…”

It ain’t no secret that Australia’s east coast is a hive of frantic shark activity as whales and their vulnerable babies return from the far North Coast, Byron etc, back down towards their summer hangs in Antarctica. 

One week ago, two surfers, pals of mine as it happened, were chased out of the water by a juvenile Great White at Lighthouse Beach in Seal Rocks, the familiar white belly of the fish visible in the azure water, its fins flared and ready for action. One of the surfers had the foresight to paddle up to his pal and wrap his arm around him to create one, big solid figure. The Great White hesitated, they caught waves. Got ‘emselves a fine, if increasingly common, fireside story. 

Yesterday, at Angourie, that “gemlike pointbreak in rural North Coast New South Wales, Australia, three miles from the fishing town of Yamba” the Angourie-based surfer and shaper Will Webber, brother of concave pioneer Greg Webber, reported a dolphin washed ashore after being bitten in half. 

BeachGrit consulted a local shark fisherman, unnamed ’cause oowee that particular game is fraught with politics, who said it was, a, definitely a Great White and, b, bigger than four metres or fifteen-feet on that beautiful imperial scale still used in the US.

Surfers are being warned an attack is “expected” up from “probable” from earlier in the year.

Surfers along Australia’s north-east coastline are acutely aware of the danger the area  brings, with Great Whites regularly hitting surfers.

In late July, surfer Kai Mckenzie survived a belting from a Great White, his right leg washed to shore shortly after he beached himself.