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A Gold Coast surfer mauled by a suspected white pointer shark Tuesday may have died before heroic rescuers dragged him to shore, an eyewitness says.
Nick Slater was washed away by lifeguards and surfers from the ocean at Greenmount Beach in Coolangatta early Tuesday night.
The 46-year-old realtor suffered serious leg injuries and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene minutes after his arrival.
His fellow surfer Jade Parker was preparing to hit the water when he saw Slater floating motionless next to his board in the lineup.
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He waded in to help other surfers and lifeguards bring Slater back.
Parker found a 4 cm tooth lodged in Slater’s table, which he said was from “an obvious white pointer.”
“It was a good size bite for the board,” he told Seven Network on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to get to the gory parts, but he was in bad shape. He wasn’t conscious. It seemed like he was almost dead at that point.”
George heard / things
Gold Coast locals and visitors were urged to stay out of the water while lifeguards on jet skis and helicopters searched for the shark.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Parker and the other rescuers who went to help Slater were heroes.
“The courage to run into the waves moments after a shark attack is admirable,” he told parliament.
“I think these people are worthy of a nomination for awards for bravery.”
Since then, two tiger sharks have been caught in a drum line and shark net near Greenmount Beach, but it is not known if they are related to the fatal attack.
Griffith University shark ecologist Johan Gustafson said sharks often followed prey, such as fish, closer to shore and it was likely a random attack.
“We are (also) in the elusive white shark season because the waters are still cool,” he said.
Gustafson said sharks were curious animals that sometimes tasted object bites, which could have devastating effects on humans because the pressure from the bite was so great.
Previously, Gold Coast locals and visitors were urged to stay out of the water while lifeguards on jet skis and helicopters searched for the shark.
Beaches are officially closed to swimmers from the New South Wales border to Burleigh Heads, an area about 20 km long.
Queensland Lifesaving supervisor Nathan Fife warned swimmers that “bait balls” from large fish and south-migrating whales will likely attract sharks to shore.
“Don’t swim at dawn or dusk. That is the time when marine life feeds,” he said.
It was the first fatal shark attack on the Gold Coast since a swimmer died in Surfers Paradise in 1958.
Greenmount Beach is one of several on the Gold Coast that has a shark net. It also has eight drum lines.
Fisheries Minister Mark Furner said they were being checked regularly and the government remained committed to the state’s shark control program on 86 beaches from the Gold Coast to Cairns.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the attack could harm the region’s Covid-19-ravaged tourism industry and urged people who want to swim to do so north of Burleigh.
“Bring it to reality, when we leave the land we enter the water, it is the domain of the shark. The danger is there,” he told Nine News.
Slater’s death is the second fatal shark attack in Queensland in just over two months after 36-year-old Matthew Tratt died while spearfishing off Fraser Island in early July.
In June, Gold Coast surfer Rob Pedretti, 60, died after being mutilated by a 10-foot white shark off Salt Beach in South Kingscliff in northern New South Wales.
