(TAN): In the first such incident in over 60 years, an Australian man was killed in a shark attack off Queensland’s Gold Coast on September 8. Nick Slater, 46, was at Greenmount Beach at Coolangatta, a well-known surf spot, when a shark, reported to be a three-metre great white, mauled his leg, reports said.
Slater was rushed ashore and given first aid but could not be saved. Responding quickly, Authorities closed an 18 kilometre (11-mile) stretch of beaches to search for the shark. “Once we know that the shark is not in the vicinity or we have tracked it, then the beach will be reopened,” said the city’s mayor Tom Tate.
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The authorities will also investigate whether a dead tiger shark caught in a net off Greenmount Beach beach killed Slater, an official said. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a large tiger shark had been found after Slater’s death, tangled in a net off the same beach where the surfer was attacked.
“Further investigations will be conducted to discover if there is any link between it and the fatal attack,” Palaszczuk told the state Parliament.
Slater, a local real estate agent, had been surfing next to Snapper Rocks point. Witnesses said that he had been bitten across the upper leg, and “it was pretty much all taken”. A surfer, Jade Parker, who came to Slater’s rescue, said there was a large bite mark on Slater’s board that was probably about the same circumference as a basketball.
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The Gold Coast is among Australia’s most famous tourist destinations, popular for its long white-sand beaches and surfing breaks. Since the 1960s, beaches here have been protected by shark nets and drumlines baited hooks suspended underwater. Shark attacks here are rarely reported. Before nets were put in place, records say the last fatal shark attack off a Gold Coast beach, was in 1958. Officials said it was too early to comment on the requirement for additional shark protection measures.
Slater’s death is the sixth fatal attack by a shark in Australia this year, with most occurring along the country’s east coast.
