Australian authorities are looking for the great white shark that killed a man on Little Bay beach south of Sydney on Thursday. in the first deadly attack in Australia’s most populous city for almost 60 years.
As a result of this tragic incident, the local authorities closed dozens of beaches, from Bondi, one of the most popular among tourists, to Cronulla, in the extreme south of the city, on a day in which temperatures exceeded 30 degrees. in Sydney.
Likewise, the authorities activated an intense search and capture operation along some 25 kilometers of coast by sea and by air, with helicopters and drones, to capture the shark, while placing six special computerized traps.
New South Wales State Fisheries Minister Dugald Saunders, who described Wednesday’s fatal attack as a “devastating incident”, admitted the shark could be difficult to find due to its ability to move. “It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we’ve seen sharks travel great distances,” Saunders told Sky News television.
The great white shark, estimated to be between 3 and 5 meters long, attacked an as-yet-unidentified man who was swimming in Little Beach on Wednesday afternoon in an incident that was captured on video by a witness. Yesterday afternoon, the authorities managed to recover the remains of the man, who is the first fatality of a shark attack in Sydney since January 28, 1963 when the Australian actress Marcia Hathaway died as a result of the bites of a bull shark in Sugarloaf Bay.
Last year there were 18 shark attacks in Australia, of which three were fatal, while in 2020 there were 26 attacks, with 8 deaths.
The great white, which can measure up to 5.5 meters in length and feeds on fish and other species such as rays, marine mammals, crustaceans and seabirds, became world famous as a killer in the 1970s with the movie ‘Jaws ‘ Directed by Steven Spielberg.
According to studies by the government scientific agency CSIRO at the beginning of 2018, there are about 2,210 adult white sharks off the coast of Australia, which, although they are considered the most dangerous, are included in the international lists of endangered species.
Watch the video of the attack here. *Sensitive images.
⚠️SENSITIVE IMAGE |
????A swimmer died suffering “catastrophic injuries” caused by a 5 meter great white shark at Little Bay Beach, Sydney, Australia ????????????????♂️
????It was the first fatal, unprovoked shark attack -in this city- since 1963#L25pic.twitter.com/i6ZLOYpcee
— LATITUDE 25 (@EnLatitude25) February 17, 2022