A shark bit a surfer, making it the fourth assault on Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) coast in less than 48 hours.
Police reported that the 39-year-old guy “sustained a wound to his chest” after a shark chewed his board on the Mid North Coast on Tuesday morning. He has been let out of the hospital.
It comes after three such attacks in Sydney in the last two days. Police warned that all beaches in Sydney’s northern area will stay closed until further notice.
The attacks happened after days of torrential rain, which NSW Superintendent Joseph McNulty had claimed might have made the area “perfect storm” for shark attacks. Rain washes nutrients into the sea, which can bring sharks closer to shore.
The incident on Tuesday happened near the Point Plomer campground, which is around 450 km (279 miles) north of Sydney.
Steve Pearce, the head of Surf Life Saving NSW, told ABC that the surfer was “very lucky not to have gotten any serious injuries.””Nobody should swim or surf near river mouths because that’s where sharks hang out,” Pearce added. “I’d think twice about going in there if the water was dirty.”
A young surfer had a similar lucky escape at Dee Why Beach in Sydney on Monday. However, a shark attack at neighbouring Manly a few hours later left a 27-year-old with “life-changing” injuries. A 12-year-old child was also seriously hurt when he was bitten at a popular beach in Sydney Harbour on Sunday.
Authorities believe bull sharks were involved in most of the recent attacks.
The Australian Museum claims that bull sharks are “one of the few sharks that are potentially dangerous to people.” These sharks may live in both fresh and salt water. The International Shark Attack File says they are the third most dangerous type of shark.
A bull shark attacked a woman and killed her last November on an isolated beach on the NSW Mid North coast. A man was also critically hurt.
Dr. Daryl McPhee, an associate professor of environmental science at Bond University, told the BBC that bull sharks are usually sighted around Sydney in January and February, which is summer in Australia, because “the water is at their preferred temperature.”
Even though Australia is a popular place for shark attacks, the odds of being attacked are still very low. This spate of shark attacks in NSW is very rare.”This many bull shark bites in such a short amount of time is very strange,” McPhee added.
On Monday, police told people to stay away from rivers in NSW because of the recent weather, which has made the water less clear and clean.Superintendent Joseph McNulty told reporters, “I would not recommend swimming in the harbour or any of our other river systems in New South Wales right now.”
McPhee claimed that rain can bring fish that bull sharks eat closer together in rivers and on beaches. He also said that “bull sharks are well adapted to feeding in murky water after rain.”You can discover bull sharks where you find fish. Sadly, this happens sometimes at popular beach spots.
