White shark attacks paddler’s canoe at Coffs Harbour south wall

The paddler was left floundering in the water after the lighting-fast attack during an early morning training session near Coffs Harbour’s south wall.

A canoe was bitten in half by a shark at Coffs Harbour leaving the paddler floundering in the water during an early morning training session.

In an ironic twist, the paddler was rescued by a passing boat on its way out to install a SMART (Shark-Management-Alert-In-Real Time) drum line.

The carbon fibre wreck of the canoe is still at the yacht club where commodore John Wait said it was “only a matter of time” before something like this happened.

“They are out there in plague proportions at the moment,” Mr Wait said.

He said local shark numbers generally pick up around Anzac Day in time for the mullet run, and then they “follow the whales” on their annual migration.

“It’s just one of those things - numbers will start to drop off again soon.”

Roy Doutreband was at the yacht club and took a photo of what was left of the carbon fibre canoe.

The tight-knit paddling community has been reluctant to speak openly about the incident, but several people have told The Daily Telegraph that retired accountant John Vincent was in a single-person craft out doing “ocean efforts” on Wednesday morning around 6 o’clock when his craft was bitten in a split second encounter.

He was not injured and according to fellow paddlers has already been back out on the water in a borrowed canoe.

“Those guys are keen - they will keep going out there,” Mr Wait said.

Mr Vincent was with two other paddlers, who were also in single-person craft, training for an event this weekend which will run from Woolgoolga to Coffs Harbour.

With no warning the shark took hold of his boat just behind where he was seated and bit it in two.

Another local, who didn’t want to be named, has also seen the mauled craft and heard accounts of what happened.

The teeth marks can be seen clearly on the canoe.

“There are two pieces left of it (the six-metre canoe) let’s put it that way,” he said.

“The water went all bubbly - then it was all flat as a tack in seconds - it happened really quickly.”

The attack took place near the south wall.

Officers from the Department of Primary Industries were called to speak to the paddlers involved and to examine the remains of the canoe.

The harbour’s south wall.

A spokesperson confirmed that a great white, approximately three metres in length, was most likely to have caused the damage.

“It was reported the man was kayaking between Pig Island and Coffs Harbour break wall when something struck the rear end of the kayak,” the spokesperson said.

“NSW DPI shark biologists spoke to the man and assessed photographs of the kayak and the damage to ascertain if a shark was involved.

“The shark was not seen by any of the three kayakers in the area, but the bite indentations and profile in the kayak are indicative of a white shark.”