By Heather McNeill
WA Police have confirmed the search for a missing surfer attacked by a large shark in chest-deep waters off a West Australian beach on Monday is now a recovery mission.
Steven Payne, a 37-year-old holidaying from Melbourne, was in the water at Wharton Beach near Esperance when beachgoers heard screams and witnessed a sustained shark attack before the surfer vanished, and the water turned dark.
More than 24 hours on and the search for the man has only returned his surfboard, which had shark bite marks on it.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said drone footage from the scene had captured a shark and large amounts of blood in the water shortly after the attack.
“The family have been notified, and I suspect it will be a recovery operation,” he said.
Steven Payne had only been in WA for a few weeks after embarking on a six-month trip with his partner and dog.
Former abalone diver and Ocean Safety & Support Esperance committee member Marc Payne, who has lost five friends to fatal shark bites, said the community was reeling from the latest tragedy, with the man’s suspected death the fourth in the area since 2017.
“This incident was in the middle of the day, chest-deep,” he told Radio 6PR.
“At the moment I’m just heart-wrenched, it’s something that’s ongoing, and it’s not going away.
“We have great white sightings – they’re patrolling our beaches on a daily basis and the community’s had enough, we really want something done, we feel like we’re not getting the response.
“We know that Fisheries have the capability to tag because they go out, and they tag five or six great whites in one day … we want them to move their capture tagging program from all our remote islands, to more responding to events like this because great whites revisit areas of interest.”
Marc Payne said it was concerning the shark involved in the attack hadn’t been tagged.
“We feel like more can be done; we’re talking about human lives here,” he said.
“Completely ignoring the situation, and just saying we’re going to close the beach and drive up and down in our boats each time this happens [is not enough] as far as I’m concerned, as far as the Ocean Safety community and Esperance is concerned.
“These sharks are not getting better, they’re getting worse, the interactions are increasing considerably.”
WA Police, Marine Rescue WA and State Emergency Service personnel are searching the area for the missing surfer.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has confirmed there is no active search to locate the shark. The beach remains closed.
Joscelin Boissieux witnessed Monday’s attack, telling 9 News Perth there were screams as people warned others in the water about the shark.
“We heard the scream, and everyone got out of the water … there was only a surfboard left, floating around about 30 metres from the shore,” he said.
“The water next to it was dark, with a shark’s fin circling around.”
The partner of the surfer was on the beach when the attack unfolded.
“She was shocked,” Boissieux said. “My thoughts are with the family.”
In a statement, DPIRD confirmed it conducts shark tagging activities off the Esperance coast each summer to coincide with seal pupping season.
“Between November 2024 and February 2025, DPIRD conducted five tagging trips. A total of nine white sharks were tagged, including six white sharks off the coast of Esperance,” it read.
“DPIRD has tagged 206 white sharks in WA waters since 2009.”
Tagged shark detector beacons have also been installed at three beaches in the region including Twilight Beach, West Beach and Kelp Beds Beach.
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