The shark that attacked a surfer at Fishery Bay in South Australia, leaving the man in critical condition, is reported to be a monsterous six metres in length, or 20 feet.
Police said the man was surfing about 350 metres offshore from Port Lincoln National Park when the shark attacked him. A helicopter airlifted the man from Port Lincoln to Adelaide with life-threatening injuries. The Ambulance Service said he needed to be resuscitated.
The IB Times reported that according to an onlooker’s statement, it was a six-metre shark with massive pectoral fin. He said that he was around 50 metres away when the shark came and bit the man’s leg off. When the shark went out to the ocean, the onlooker said that it still had the man’s leg.
Wildcatch Fisheries SA chairman Jonas Woolford said that there had been a number of sightings just recently at a number of locations along the coast near to Fishery Bay. According to him, the sightings have indicated that the sharks have been aggressive.
"It's been reported that there hasn't been many for about 10 or so weeks, so whether those ones that have been laying low are now coming back to the areas which they normally frequent and they may be rather hungry,” Woolford said. According to Woolford, humans are very slow in the water so are easy prey
“It's only a theory that they may be rather hungry, that they all probably all got fairly freaked out by the killer whales that have been laying very low, so now they might be surfacing again,” he said as he reminded that killer whales had scared off great white sharks in the area earlier in 2015. Woolford added that there had been more sightings around just recently.
Julie Low, the Mayor of the District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula, said that it was a shame that such an incident had taken place in such “a beautiful place.” According to her, it is a very popular surfing spot for the local Port Lincoln people. She extended her sympathy for the victim and his family and friends.
Port Lincoln was the scene of another attack 10 years ago in which a man was able to fend off a four-metre white shark.
Fishery Bay is a rocky left point and beach break on the Eyre Peninsula.
