Helping hand from a mate after surfer punches shark in day of twin attacks
Surfer mauled by 4m shark punched it before a mate helped him bodysurf to shore in one of 2 attacks in WA’s Margaret River.
A surfer mauled by a 4m shark tried to punch it before escaping by bodysurfing back to shore side by side with a fellow surfer, in one of two attacks yesterday that have shaken Western Australia’s famous Margaret River surf region.
Witnesses said 37-year-old Alejandro Travaglini’s life was probably saved by fellow surfers who applied a tourniquet to his leg minutes after he was bitten by the shark at Cobblestones Beach at Gracetown, 20km from Margaret River, just before 8am.
Mr Travaglini, a local resident, was flown to Royal Perth Hospital where he underwent surgery.
About 3pm, another surfer, 41-year-old Jason Longrass — who had ignored warnings of a 4m shark in the water — was bitten on the leg at the Left Handers break just 750m from Cobblestones. St John Ambulance officers treated Mr Longrass, whose injuries were not life-threatening.
Beaches in and around Gracetown have been closed.
The twin attacks came as some of the world’s best surfers competed nearby at the Margaret River Pro tournament, one of WA’s premier sporting events.
The Margaret River Pro was suspended for about an hour before resuming with enhanced safety measures, including skis and drones.
Two-time defending world surfing champion John John Florence of Hawaii had a scare after seeing a splash while he was free-surfing in preparation for the event before posting drone video of large sharks.
“Whoa boys, see something,” Florence is heard saying, while reviewing film of their practice.
“We put up the Shark Watch Drone. We are up in the air. Looking for a splash we just saw.
“Holy shit ... He’s in the friggin murk. That thing looks pretty big. Look how smooth they are in the water.”
The McGowan government will come under further pressure after the attacks to protect the state’s beach users through the use of drumlines or shark culls.
State Opposition Leader Mike Nahan said the attacks emphasised the need to do more, including using SMART (Shark-Management Alert in Real Time) drumlines rather than the Labor government’s subsidised shark-deterrent devices. “Sharks are still a threat to surfers and people in the ocean here,” Mr Nahan said.
There have been three fatal shark attacks in Gracetown in the past 13 years. A whale carcass had washed up near the sites of yesterday’s attacks.
A witness to yesterday’s first attack, surf photographer Peter Jovic, told The Australian the shark appeared suddenly and he saw plenty of thrashing in the water, saying the incident reminded him of the near attack on Australian surfer Mick Fanning in South Africa in 2015.
“One of the other surfers just turned around and made a beeline towards him to help him out,” Mr Jovic said. “The guy who’s been attacked has started to swim and while the other surfers came up to try to help him, fortunately this wave has come through and he’s managed to literally bodysurf his way down the wave.”
Mr Travaglini is recovering in the RPH trauma unit after surgery to both his legs and he is with his family. “I just want to thank all the legends who helped me up the beach,” he said in a statement.
In 2013, Mr Travaglini had posted on Facebook against shark culling, saying in one post “I rather be taken by a great white than by a drunk redneck on a V8”.
Mr Jovic said surfers and bystanders on the beach did an “amazing” job trying to save the man’s life. “They got the surfer out of the water, they got tourniquets, they got towels, they used the board as a stretcher.
“They did all those sorts of things, all the primary things you need to do to save a life.
“They kept him talking, they did all the comforting and reassuring things you need to do in first-aid. They saved his life.”
Mr Jovic said he believed it took only 2½ minutes for a tourniquet to be applied.
German tourists Nic Eickers, 18, and Thore Pless, 20, who witnessed the second attack, said they had been told about the earlier incident at Cobblestones. They also knew a whale carcass had washed up on the beach near Left Handers. “But we thought the surf looked so good we had to go in,” Mr Eickers said. The two men left the water with others when a Department of Fisheries patrol boat ordered them out due to another shark sighting.
But Mr Longrass refused to leave, they said. Mr Longrass said he was “very lucky”. “It was heading straight for me, beelining straight at me ... and just nailed the board.”
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