A man has been hospitalised after he was attacked by a shark at a New South Wales beach. The incident marks the fourth shark attack in NSW in the last 48 hours.
A 39-year-old man was attacked by a shark at Point Plomer Beach, north of Port Macquarie, while he was surfing on Tuesday morning. A Mid North Coast Local Health District spokesperson told ABC News the surfer suffered minor injuries and has since been discharged from Kempsey District Hospital.
Following Tuesday’s incident, drones have been deployed to surveil the water, with Port Macquarie Hastings ALS Lifeguards saying beaches from Town Beach in Port Macquarie to Crescent Head Beach have been closed.
Steve Pearce, Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive, told ABC News he was “lucky to be alive” following the incident.
“The area is known to have some shark activity up there,” he said.
“[He’s] very fortunate to not have sustained any serious injuries.”
The type of shark involved in the incident has not been confirmed. However, witnesses claimed to have seen multiple bull sharks at the time of the attack.
The Point Plomer Beach shark attack comes after three attacks in the last 48 hours.
On Monday afternoon, a man suffered critical injuries after he was mauled while surfing at Sydney’s Manly Beach. Hours before then, an 11-year-old managed to escape an attack without injury at Dee Why Beach.
On Sunday, a 13-year-old swimmer was attacked near Vaucluse’s Shark Beach in Sydney Harbour.
Pearce urged the public not to swim or surf near river mouths as sharks tend to swarm those areas after a big weather event, such as last weekend’s severe downpour.
“Anytime after a big weather event, there’s always going to be a lot of run-off and outflow of creeks into the ocean and river mouths,” Pearce said.
“We really strongly advocate that nobody swim or surf near river mouths because it’s obviously an area where sharks congregate.
“If it’s dirty water, I’d think twice about going in there.”
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