Swimmer lucky to be alive after being ‘rammed’ by great white shark

A West Australian swimmer is lucky to be alive after he was “rammed” in the side by a massive great white shark.

A swimmer is lucky to be alive after he was reportedly “rammed” by a mammoth great white shark in Perth.

Surf Life Saving WA closed Florida Beach in the southern Perth suburb of Mandurah following the close call.

The swimmer told surf life savers he had jumped off a reef in shallow water, about 150m off the coast and between Florida and Melros Beach, when the 3.5m shark rammed him in the side.

The shark then swam away, leaving the man to make a mad dash back to shore, just before 2pm yesterday.

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Cont - shark sighted 150m offshore , A 3.5M Great white shark has rammed a male person in his side off the back of the reef at Melros Beach Mandurah. nil injuries to swimmer, for awareness of other swimmers in the area Melros, south of Mandurah.

— Surf Life Saving WA (@SLSWA) March 6, 2022

The Department of Fisheries’ Shark Operation Unit confirmed the terrifying incident and warned others to stay out of the water for 24 hours.

“To reduce the threat to people, Florida Beach has now been closed and will remain closed for 24 hours when City of Mandurah will reassess the situation,” the government’s Shark Smart organisation said.

A surf life saving helicopter also sent a helicopter to the area to monitor the surrounding beaches.

Speaking to Perth Now, Mandurah local Michael Draper said while he didn’t witness the encounter, he believed the animal may not have been a great white given they typically stay further offshore.

“There’s not many whites, they’re normally out way deep, they come in if there’s schools of fish,” he said, adding the creature might’ve been a tiger shark.

“They go where the food is. It obviously wasn’t interested in the person it bumped, that’s not really predatory behaviour.”

Great white sightings are a common occurrence in Western Australia.

The swimmer was reportedly rammed by a great white shark.

The most recent attack was just last month, when a 20-year-old woman was bitten on her side by a great white, off the coast in Esperance.

The woman had been floating on an inflatable ring when she was bitten at Kelp Beds beach on February 6.

She managed to make her way to shore and was rushed to hospital.

Three people have been killed by sharks in the Esperance region since 2017.

In January 2020, diver Gary Johnson was killed by a shark at Devils Rock, off the coast of Esperance.

His wife Karen Milligan witnessed part of the attack but was forced to let him go when she realised “his eyes were open but he was unresponsive”, an inquest heard last year.

The other two attacks at Esperance happened at Kelp Beds, a popular surf break not far from the town.

Kelp Beds beach at Wylie Bay, WA. Picture: Sarah Makse

Teen surfer Laeticia Brouwer died in 2017 after she was mauled by a shark at the surf break. She was surfing with her dad when the shark struck her and pulled her beneath the waves.

Her dad managed to get Laeticia to shore but she died from her injuries a short time later.

Local surfer Andrew Sharpe was also killed by a great white shark in October 2020. Authorities searched for him for three days but he was never found.