‘It’s Jaws out there’: Shark attacks draw comparison with horror flick
A Tweed Shire councillor has likened the state’s north coast to a Jaws movie after another surfer was attacked at Byron Bay on Sunday.
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A Tweed Shire councillor has likened the state’s north coast to a Jaws movie after another surfer was attacked at Byron Bay on Sunday.
Sam Edwardes was sitting on his surfboard in the water at Belongil Beach when what is believed to have been a juvenile great white shark tore a chunk out of his leg and board.
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His friend Dane Davidson heard the screams from the water and used leg ropes to stop the bleeding in his leg after he struggled to shore.
Mr Edwardes, a music teacher, remains at the Gold Coast University Hospital where he has already endured the first of several surgeries.
Tweed Shire councillor Pryce Allsop said the state’s north had begun to feel like “the movie Jaws”.
“It’s almost true life, the amount of attacks we’re getting are starting to stack up. I understand why people don’t want drumlines but we’re becoming like the movie Jaws,” he said.
“You’ve got to wonder how many people are going to be attacked before we go ‘this is no good’.”
The 41-year-old was attacked in the Byron Shire Council area which does not operate the SMART drum lines used in other parts of the state.
A statement from the council yesterday said it would consider the use of drumlines “outside the whale migration season” but instead encouraged bathers to “become Shark Smart by understanding how to reduce the risk of shark encounters”.
The incident was a lucky escape for Mr Edwardes who was windsurfing with a friend when he was taken by a great white shark in South Australia 20 years ago.
Mr Edwardes had just left the water at Hardwicke Bay when his friend Tony Donoghue, 22, disappeared from sight.
His body was never found but his shredded wetsuit was, with a coroner later ruling that the tears were made by a great white shark.
Mr Edwardes’s sister Lorelei said the incident had derailed his life but didn’t stop him from surfing.
“I think when his friend got taken he took that really, really, really hard and for a time it really wrecked his life,” Ms Edwardes said.
“He took it so hard and every year without fail he has done a pilgrimage back to that beach to pay homage to his friend who died.”
Scientists from the NSW Department of Industries have been trying to determine the size of the shark in yesterday’s attack but have been unable to do so.
However, they believe it was a juvenile great white.
No tagged sharks were picked up by the DPI around the time of the incident, the department said in a statement on Sunday.
The beach was closed for 24 hours as a precaution.
SUNDAY’S ATTACK
Mr Edwardes was at Belongil Beach when the shark took a chunk of flesh from his left thigh about 6.40am.
Paramedics and police were called to the scene where members of the public were trying to treat Mr Edwardes on the sand.
He was flown to Gold Coast University Hospital in a serious but stable condition to undergo surgery.
Belongil Beach and nearby Main Beach were closed for 24 hours.
Mr Edwardes flatmate Dane Davidson said that he was only 15 metres away when the shark attacked, knocking his mate from his board.
“There was a lot of thrashing and splashing and he started screaming,” he said.
Mr Edwardes was able to get back on his board and paddle back to shore.
“I didn’t realise until we were on the beach that there was a big chunk taken out of his leg.
“There was a lot of blood and bleeding.”
Mr Davidson and a second man used a surfboard leg rope as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding until paramedics arrived.
Byron Bay police chief inspector Matt Kehoe said measurements of bite marks on the man’s surfboard and the man’s leg would be sent to the Department of Primary Industries.
“He was stabilised at the scene with assistance of another surfer … a leg rope was used to stem the bleeding,” Insp Kehoe said.
Police have urged beachgoers to monitor advice by Surf Life Saving NSW and used the SharkSmart app.