Shark Stories

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yorkessurfer started the topic in Monday, 29 Oct 2012 at 12:11am

A few interesting stories on shark attacks and near misses on the Shark Shield report so I thought I would start this thread. Don't want to trivialize the subject as people have had their lives taken or changed forever by what can happen. I thought it might serve as an educational purpose by hearing others experiences so we may all learn from them and hopefully avoid it happening to us.

One of them was a mate of mine named Hazey.
He had been surfing at Castles, a notoriously sharky wave in the bay at Cactus.
Several hundred metres offshore the wave breaks before reforming into Inside Castles making a long left with several sections. The wave has been the scene of several attacks and near misses over the years including the local known as "Sharkbait" who had been attacked more than once.
Gerry Lopez is another who came very close to being attacked out there and vowed to never surf Cactus again after his near miss.
Well Hazey was surfing out the back with another bloke named Steve when out of the blue he was launched into the air still on his board by a huge force from below.
A shark had rammed him with a direct hit straight up into the air! In a moment it was gone but soon returned to the stunned Hazey and started biting him and his board. Hazey instinctively put his arms out to protect himself but both his arms ended up in its mouth. As the jaws closed down his arms could have easily been severed, but several teeth on the sharks lower jaw had become dislodged and imbedded in the board leaving his upper arms with massive injuries, but the vital inner arms where major arteries run were not majorly damaged. This probably saved his life.
By this time Steve had reacted and in a rush of adrenalin and pure ballsy courage he threw himself onto the sharks back and started gouging at the sharks eyeballs, eventually feeling one pop and the shark departed.
Steve got the two surfboards together and got himself and Hazey on and started the long paddle to shore.
Then they were both thrown into the air as the shark rammed them a third time before disappearing again. They continued to make their way closer to shore and the shark nudged them again. Steve told me he thought he really must of pissed it off when he popped its eye.
Finally they we're just a metre from shore when the shark made its fifth and final appearance. It beelined towards them and the shore while they stood in waist deep water with their boards. The sharks mouth was just rapidly opening and closing like one of those wind up sets of false teeth. The boys separated and put their hands on either side of it's body and held it on a 90 degree angle to the beach as they made the final steps to the safety of the sand.
Hazey was rushed to Ceduna hospital and then flown to Adelaide for micro surgery on his shredded arms.
Steve ended up receiving a bravery award and they both sold their story to 60 minutes and made $50,000 each out of it!
It was quite a story!

Distracted's picture
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Distracted Saturday, 2 Mar 2024 at 1:37pm
udo wrote:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-02/video-sharks-dolphins-maul-prawn-...

No doubt there’s lots of sharks out there but the footage just shows them eating by catch. Have to wonder on the impact that bycatch has on fish populations.
Camped at Bundjalung once and the prawn trawlers were working offshore all night and the next morning on the high tide mark there were mixed juvenile fish for kilometres along the beach.

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Denyer Saturday, 2 Mar 2024 at 3:41pm
Distracted wrote:
Denyer wrote:

Oh, and I should mention that of course we warned the old bloke that there was a GWS / whale carcass out there!!

This would have been the one Denyer?

https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2018/07/17/surfers-tow-d...

Yep that's the one!

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tubeshooter Monday, 4 Mar 2024 at 6:26pm

A 3.5m White beached itself at Kingscliff today. Sorry, just saw link posted in other thread

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-04/great-white-shark-washes-up-kings...

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velocityjohnno Wednesday, 6 Mar 2024 at 4:51pm

What a huge strike!

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Pop Down Wednesday, 6 Mar 2024 at 7:10pm

Ok , the GW Shark , seemed 2B just sitting there , totally unaware a train was about to broadside it and kill it .

The GW now knows ( for 1 second ), how we feel .

Absolutely NO contest and , maybe , an OLD trick that's just been seen ?

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velocityjohnno Wednesday, 6 Mar 2024 at 7:58pm

You reckon the GWS was catching a nap? Had it's guard down.

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udo Wednesday, 6 Mar 2024 at 8:42pm

?si=YCeIW41S-fZI2zox

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udo Thursday, 11 Apr 2024 at 1:54pm
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udo Wednesday, 24 Apr 2024 at 7:35pm

?si=s_akBFMHrDZlipoG

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velocityjohnno Thursday, 6 Jun 2024 at 4:12pm

Can ya blame him? Those little guys are so spiky.

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udo Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:26pm

?si=9XEBiRjiCjWoVVos

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wax24 Sunday, 9 Jun 2024 at 5:58pm

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce441vy593jo

Shoot. That first link became paywalled, it seems. Hope this one works.

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udo Sunday, 9 Jun 2024 at 7:32pm

?si=x4k0Ye8tFIaPLasy

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simba Sunday, 23 Jun 2024 at 10:41am

seems like the whites are back in numbers along with tiger sharks....

DPI advise that there’s a whale in poor health about 600m off Yamba Beach. It might account for the 6 tigers caught by our SMART drumlines off Yamba today, 21 June 2024! Please be #SharkSmart.

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goofyfoot Tuesday, 25 Jun 2024 at 9:29am
udo wrote:

https://youtu.be/xRrBmU-_pdw?si=x4k0Ye8tFIaPLasy

Once in a lifetime experience, that was insane.

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udo Tuesday, 25 Jun 2024 at 1:53pm

Wild eh...imagine being out there and She Shows up...

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Supafreak Sunday, 7 Jul 2024 at 7:55am

That is one big tiger.

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tubeshooter Sunday, 7 Jul 2024 at 2:02pm

It's not uncommon to come across a Bull shark with an attitude problem but this one seems to have some real serious issues going on.
Apparently, it bit 4 people on the same day in the U.S.

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udo Monday, 8 Jul 2024 at 6:00pm
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southernraw Tuesday, 23 Jul 2024 at 5:29pm
udo wrote:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-23/shark-attack-port-macquarie-man-i...

Shiiit. Poor bugger. That would have been terrifying seeing it coming towards him and then being hit. Glad he's relatively ok.
Another midmorning attack on a sunny blue day by a Pointer.

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udo Tuesday, 23 Jul 2024 at 5:44pm

11mths on from Toby Beggs Attack in Same Area.

juegasiempre's picture
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juegasiempre Tuesday, 23 Jul 2024 at 8:40pm

Shit's very sharky down this way at the moment.

What's the consensus on those smart drum lines? There's a bunch down here, I guess they make me feel a little safer but at the end of the day I don't know anything and the last two attacks in Port occurred with them out.

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velocityjohnno Wednesday, 24 Jul 2024 at 1:47pm

Wherabouts have your travels taken you now juegasiempre? There's a bit being noticed down here on the SC but it is the time of year of the whales.

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juegasiempre Wednesday, 24 Jul 2024 at 1:55pm

Stopped travelling March this year, settled just south of Port. It's second hand info/chinese whispers but there's been shark encounters/sightings here. It actually spooked me enough that I surfed at what I think to be a 'safer spot' yesterday. I usually have a cavalier attitude but there's no more surfing on my own anymore.

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quadzilla Thursday, 25 Jul 2024 at 12:37pm
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udo Thursday, 25 Jul 2024 at 7:36pm
Distracted's picture
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Distracted Sunday, 28 Jul 2024 at 12:25am

Not sure if this has been posted before. It’s a research article discussing the possible impacts on Great White behaviour after being caught and released on the Smart drum lines.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374673642_Capture_Response_and_...

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freeride76 Sunday, 28 Jul 2024 at 7:54am

Thanks Distracted, reading now.

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udo Sunday, 28 Jul 2024 at 9:03am
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udo Tuesday, 20 Aug 2024 at 8:17am

Juvenile GWS Lake Conjola
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/7drjJwuNi4WqR23p/

?si=rSuTXwI3RDR8X2_N

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etarip Tuesday, 20 Aug 2024 at 10:15am
udo wrote:

Juvenile GWS Lake Conjola
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/7drjJwuNi4WqR23p/
https://youtu.be/091nkH3b2Qo?si=rSuTXwI3RDR8X2_N

Fuck they get close to the rocks with zero shits don’t they…

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udo Tuesday, 20 Aug 2024 at 11:03am
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udo Monday, 26 Aug 2024 at 6:40pm

?si=0fBTNgDffg1jRYOb

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seeds Monday, 26 Aug 2024 at 6:56pm

That’d be amazing to see up close. Maybe a pregnant female?

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whitewaterpilot Monday, 2 Sep 2024 at 10:46am

About 2-3 weeks ago while the entire world of surf media was in Fiji reporting on fairly average Cloudbreak action a kite surfer got attacked by a shark just down the coast at Frigates reef. I find it odd that nobody reported on this. Considering they do shark feedings at Frigates reef, I feel like potential tourist surfers would want to know...

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Distracted Wednesday, 11 Sep 2024 at 5:25pm

Interesting shark footage from the weekend at Port Macquarie, although may not be a White as per the headline.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/ox78xUBg4gXkXiF8/?mibextid=YpDZO8

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udo Wednesday, 11 Sep 2024 at 5:39pm

Dan K What do think ?

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udo Thursday, 12 Sep 2024 at 9:51am

?si=4xCNDY0T1O2iYkbF

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udo Friday, 13 Sep 2024 at 10:03am

?si=KDqCjXx-ByKWojzj

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simba Monday, 16 Sep 2024 at 7:50pm

bondi .......

&ab_channel=DroneSharkApp

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udo Tuesday, 17 Sep 2024 at 12:42pm

?si=LGcdC3lPog1M2xPJ

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southernraw Tuesday, 17 Sep 2024 at 4:57pm

haha that was awesome Udo. Loved the stick legs.