Great white shark were believed to responsible for an attack on Sean Pollard on 2 October, about 480km from where a man’s body was found at Cheynes beach. Photograph: Handout/Reuters
A man has died in a suspected shark attack in Western Australia.
WA police released a statement saying the man’s body was found at Cheynes beach near Albany at 12.20pm on Monday.
“The man appears to have an injury to his body. Based on an initial assessment it appears the injury is consistent with a shark bite, however further assessment will need to be made to confirm this,” police said.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Fisheries said the man had been pulled from the water and had wounds consistent with bite marks, but said a shark attack had not been confirmed.
Fisheries staff are heading to the beach and will investigate the incident. Local police and St John Ambulance officers are attending the scene.
According to the SharkSmart website, there have been no reported sightings of a shark within 400km of Cheynes Beach for the past 30 days.
However the ABC reported that local surfers have talked about a shark swimming in the area in recent days.
An employee at Cheynes Beach Caravan Park told Guardian Australia the only shark sighting in the area had been of a bronze whaler in the week before Christmas.
The sighting was reported at the general store, which is operated at the caravan park.But the employee, who did not wish to be named, said Cheynes Beach was “not a great shark area.”
We have had two dead whales that washed up on the beach this year or last year and Fisheries were trying to use them to lure sharks to the area to tag them – they went away empty handed,” she said.
The park is full to capacity for the week leading up to New Years Eve, and the employee, who did not wish to be named, said most people would have been at the beach today.
Cheynes beach is a popular camping spot 65km east of Albany on West Australia’s south coast. It is about 480km from Esperance where 23-year-old Sean Pollard was attacked by what’s believed to be two great white sharks on October 2.
Pollard survived the attack but lost an arm and a hand.
source: theguardian.com
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