French surfer punches shark, survives attack in Australia

SYDNEY - A French surfer has survived a shark attack in Australia with only minor leg injuries by punching it twice, local media reported.

Dylan Nacass, 23, was surfing at Bells Beach, about 1.5 hours from Melbourne, when the shark attacked on Friday, Nine News said. 

Video footage shows a shark swimming up behind two men as they paddle desperately to get away.

Nacass told Nine the shark latched onto his leg until he punched it twice and he was released from its jaws.

"I punched him one time, he stays in my legs. Two times, after, he go," he said.

Local man Matt Sedunary rushed to the Frenchman's aid after realizing he was in distress.

"He started screaming -- I honestly thought he was joking around with his friends," he told Nine, adding he "wasn't going to ditch him".

"Most people would do the same thing."

The incident was captured by Australian man Graham Blade, who was filming from a nearby lookout at the world-famous surf break.

"I actually saw it pop up behind him and knew it was real," Blade told Nine.

Nacass walked away with only puncture wounds to his right leg that required stitches.

Australia has one of the world's highest incidences of shark attacks, but fatalities are rare.

There were 27 maulings but no fatalities off Australia last year, according to data from Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

Despite his ordeal, Nacass said he was eager to return to the water once his injuries have healed.

"I really want to go back soon," he said. "Just when my leg, it's OK. I'm going to go back to surf soon."

Agence France-Presse

Two kids attacked by sharks off New York's Fire Island

NEW YORK - Two youngsters frolicking in the surf miles apart along the Fire Island National Seashore in New York suffered puncture wounds to their legs on Wednesday in apparent shark attacks that would mark the state's first such incidents in 70 years, authorities said.

The victims - a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy - were discharged after emergency medical treatment for their separate mishaps, each with a bandaged right leg, and both were expected to fully recover.

What appeared to be a shark's tooth was extracted from the boy's leg and will be analyzed to determine the species of the creature he encountered while boogie-boarding at Atlantique Beach in the town of Islip, officials said.

The girl, a middle school student identified at a news conference with her parents afterward as Lola Pollina, said she was standing in waist-deep water at Sailors Haven beach in nearby Brookhaven, 2 miles (3 km) east of Islip, when she was bitten.

"I saw something, like, next to me, and I kind of felt pain, and looked and I saw a fin," she said, recounting how she realized her leg was "all bloody" as she scurried from the water. The shark she saw appeared to be about 3 to 4 feet (91-122 cm) long, she said.

Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare in waters off Fire Island, east of New York City, or anywhere else in the state, according to Ian Levine, chief of the Ocean Beach Fire Department, whose paramedics aided the boy who was bitten.

Only about 10 cases of shark bites on people have ever been documented in New York state, the last one in 1948, Levine told Reuters by telephone, citing information he said was furnished by Islip town supervisors.

Neither incident on Wednesday had yet been officially confirmed as a shark attack, but Levine added, "The tooth we pulled out of the kid's leg looks like a shark's tooth." The boy, who was attending a day camp at the time, walked on and off the police boat that took him to the hospital. The girl later spoke to reporters seated in a wheelchair.

Fire Island beaches were closed afterward until further notice, National Park Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Rogers said.

The tooth specimen, which is "consistent with a large fish," was being studied by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which will report its findings to the Suffolk County Marine Bureau, Rogers said.

Bite marks on the girl also were "consistent with a large fish," she said.

Separately, a 7-foot(2.2 meter)-long tiger shark was caught by a fisherman at Kismet, another beach town 2 miles (3.2 km)west of Islip, Levine said, adding he doubted either animal involved in Wednesday's attacks was that large. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Shark attacks 65-year-old surfer in Australia

SYDNEY - A veteran surfer escaped with foot and arm injuries after a great white shark rammed his board and dragged him underwater off Australia's east coast on Thursday.

The 65-year-old managed to swim ashore and raise the alarm, before being airlifted to hospital in a stable condition.

"The surfer received puncture wounds to his foot and his arm," New South Wales state police said of the incident at Seven Mile Beach near Forster, 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Sydney.

The state's department of primary industries, which attended the scene, tweeted that "specialists have confirmed the shark involved in an incident off Booti Booti National Park this morning was a white shark".

The Newcastle Herald reported it measured up to 3.5 meters (11 feet), with pictures showing a large chunk bitten off the man's board, which split in half.

Westpac rescue helicopter crewman Graham Nickerson said the surfer told him he was with friends when the shark hit him from underneath.

"Apparently the shark came up under his board, snapped his board in two and then dragged him under by the leg rope," Nickerson told reporters.

"He's quite happy... considering what he's been through, but he's got pretty severe lacerations to his lower limbs, but he's in a stable condition."

The beach has been closed until further notice.

The attack is the latest off the New South Wales coast in recent months, with a surfer sustaining cuts to his leg just weeks ago while in the water near popular tourist spot Byron Bay.

Experts say shark attacks are increasing as water sports become more popular and bait fish move closer to shore, but fatalities remain rare.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Man loses leg in Australia shark attack

PERTH, Australia - A surfer was critical Wednesday after a shark ripped off his leg in an attack in Australia's west with witnesses recounting how "all hell broke loose" as his board was snapped in half.

The attack happened at Falcon Beach, a suburb south of Perth, late Tuesday not long after Surf Life Saving WA, a volunteer non-profit organization, tweeted that a shark, believed to be a great white, had been sighted in the area.

The West Australian newspaper reported that Ben Gerring, 29, was with a group of other surfers when he was hit by the shark, which it said severed his right leg above the knee.

Fellow surfers dragged the heavily-bleeding man to shore as he lost consciousness.

"I turned and looked back and I actually saw thrashing around him and I heard him yelling for help," friend Sheldon Spencer told the newspaper.

"His leg was gone ... one of the guys started CPR straight away. We did everything we could."

He was transferred to Royal Perth Hospital by helicopter where he was said to be in critical condition.

Mandurah Boardriders Club president Brian Williams said he had just paddled further out into the ocean to catch a bigger wave when "all hell broke loose".

"He was right out the back looking to get a big wave, one of the set waves that had been coming through during the day," Williams told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"He'd sort of paddled out the back, sort of past the pack slightly. And next thing all hell broke loose and they were trying to bring him in.

"His board was broken in half, they found the tail part of his board."

He added that Gerring's mother was at the scene.

Western Australia's department of fisheries said shark traps would be set on Wednesday to try and capture the animal, saying "a serious threat to public safety exists".

"Given the nature of the injuries and the location of the incident, it is likely that a white shark, of three metres (9ft 10ins) or more in size, is responsible," it said.

Experts say attacks are increasing as water sports become more popular and bait fish move closer to shore, but fatalities remain rare.

There have been a spate of attacks, mostly off Australia's east coast last year, including the death of a Japanese surfer.

More recently, a surfer had most of his thigh bitten off by a shark in an attack south of Sydney in March.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com