“I don't think anybody else needs to see it other than the coroner.”
Two days after Steven Payne was disappeared by a Great White shark in chest-deep water in front of his girlfriend, police have revealed a drone operator captured the attack.
Payne, a thirty-seven-year-old surfer from Melbourne, was five weeks into a six-month vacay around Australia with his girl and dog when he was hit by the Great White at Wharton Beach, eighty clicks east of Esperance, around midday on Monday.
In 2020, local surfer Andrew Sharpe was disappeared by a “monster” Great White, a day when witnesses reported the water turning red one kilometre away.
That attack came three years after teenager surfer Laticia Brouwers died in front of her family after being hit by a Great White in 2017, where Sean Pollard had an arm and another hand bitten off by a Great White in 2014 and a few clicks away from where diver Gary Johnson was killed by a White, also in 2020.
Esperance police Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor called off the search for Payne after viewing drone footage of the attack.
“I don’t think there’s much point in utilising all the resources that we have at the moment too much longer,” Taylor said. “It (the drone footage) shows a lot of blood, the shark and some other things in there I don’t particularly want to go into and I don’t think anybody else needs to see other than maybe the coroner and some other experts who will determine the type of shark and size.”
After the fatal attack, Esperance shire prez Ron Chambers told the national broadcaster that Great Whites are “a wild animal that’s out in the ocean…We have no control over their movements or where they can or can’t go, so there is a risk when you do go into the water.”
He added,
“We’ve got absolutely fantastic beaches and we get a lot of people down here that visit them,” but said visitors needed to “manage that risk (of Great White attack) as much as possible.”
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also the smell of a dead shark will scare away other sharks regarding the orca thing
animals will learn whether to be afraid of humans or not, deer aren’t scared of cars but bolt at the sight or smell of people – its ingrained learning
The only good Crocodile is a dead one.
Go to Lakey Peak and swim out between the Peak and Pipe. There’s a huge ledge right there that drops off substantially. You peek of the edge and its chock full of sharks. You see the fins popping up all the time when you surf Pipe but can’t really see it from Peak. We used to point the fins out anytime someone would paddle out to Pipe. Worked like a charm every time and we would surf it by ourselves constantly until the Saffas would show up and laugh when you pointed out the fins popping above the surface. “That’s not a fucking shark bru, just a little fishy”.
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From a survivor
Smart guy.Measured response. Like everyone, no idea what to do
https://www.rpela.com
Do you think more than 1,000 Aussies use this occasionally?
no idea
Forecast is looking good for a change
I think the cop is wrong to say that only the coroner and ‘experts’ should see it.
Quite the opposite in my opinion.
Show everyone, young and old, put it on the news etc.
Let the public be shocked.
And then they can put pressure on the decision makers to change the law and allow a cull.
It needs to be done.
And if the attacks on people don’t drop the cull can be ended, and we know their numbers will bounce back very quickly again…
Very quickly, it would appear.
If they’ve done this in just 30 years from industrial fishing levels, it would be a small fraction of that from targeted removal of sharks over 2 or 2.5m
Good thing Ron Chambers is about to explain things..
The real life, current day Sherlock Holmes of Esperance
That’s a Jim Hutton quote isn’t it?
Snark level 1 million …that’s right, not shark level
In my previous job I had to go to a number of shark attacks and they are truly horrific for everyone. That type of trauma takes years to go away. I hope that those that witnessed it get some serious counselling.
If you’re a fisherman who lives on a remote stretch of coast and there’s a problem white fish hanging around.. do your community a favour and knock it on the head. As long as it doesn’t appear on social media.. the city dwelling, green haired, vegan, human hating far lefties will never know.
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I believe this is something like what they’re doing on the East coast of oz though? The Smart drum lines, they basically hook the shark, then drag it out to sea, the whole experience is supposed to freak them out and then they are tagged so people know where they are. Not sure if they do this in WA?
How do they release the hook without fatally harming the shark? Are the hooks specially engineered?
circle hooks- easy to get out from corner of jaw.
I think 20/0.
Would also not be averse to removal of white from endangered list and limited resumption of shark fishing.
Taking out the animal that has just attacked seems pretty easy.
Been done plenty of times before.
Can you guys please post some more cheerful articles, like how maybe Durk and Natasha are finally giving up on trying to make a go of the Wsl, or KS’s possible future retirement and disappearance from the web..
PS
My sincere condolences to the family.
KS been very low key. Nothing on baby Tao!
That mayor really schooled me with the,
“Its a wild animal that lives in the ocean”