New South Wales highway patrol raced to meet an ambulance with extra units of blood to help save a 27-year-old surfer who has been left with “probably life-changing injuries” after a shark attack at Sydney’s Manly beach.
The man, who is from Wollongong, was about 40 metres off the beach when the attack took place at about 6.15pm on Monday, Supt John Duncan, the head of northern beaches police area command said. He was in a critical but stable condition on Tuesday.
“Witnesses heard him report a shark, and then he suffered a shark bite to his leg,” Duncan said on Tuesday morning, describing the injuries as “probably life-changing”.
“The surf lifesavers and emergency personnel who happened to be in the area responded quickly.”
Christie Marks with NSW ambulance said the man was in cardiac arrest when emergency crews arrived and required CPR, saying the patient had lost a “lot of blood” in the attack. A member of highway patrol met the ambulance en route to the Royal North Shore hospital. The man was given 13 units of blood while being transported.
“This is something that doesn’t happen a lot, and that is going to be something that is going to give him the best chance of surviving,” Marks said. She noted a NSW ambulance doctor happened to be swimming at the beach during the attack and was part of the initial effort to treat the man.
Sydney has been hit by a raft of shark attacks since Sunday.
An 11-year-old surfer had his board bitten by a shark at Dee Why just a few kilometres away, one day after a 12-year-old boy was attacked while swimming in Sydney Harbour in the eastern suburbs. A fourth person was injured while surfing off the coast of New South Wales’ Limeburners Creek national park, north of Port Macquarie, on Tuesday.
Sue Heins, the mayor of the northern beaches, said many in the area were still grieving the loss of surfer Mercury Psillakis, who was fatally attacked by a large great white shark at Long Reef beach in September.
“We are all shocked this can have happened again so soon on our beaches,” Heins said, noting the beaches would remain closed and that designation would be reviewed on an “ongoing” basis. “A huge thank you to the first responders at the scene, to our off duty lifeguards, and to the incredible local community and board riders who rushed without hesitation to provide assistance.”
Ash Boler, the owner of a local spearfishing store in Brookvale, told the Manly Observer he was in the water surfing with a friend when Monday’s attack took place.
“He literally had just got out through the break … and sat on his board, and we all gave a little smile and a wave. And he just got done,” the man recounted. “You could see the shark underneath him while he was getting shaken around.”
Boler said his friend put the injured man on his own board as they sought to comfort him before paddling into shore.
“He’s obviously freaked out, I told him ‘don’t look at your leg mate, don’t look at your leg,”’ he told the Observer.
The department of primary industries said scientists believed a bull shark was likely responsible, based on the bite characteristics and the severity of the injuries. The agency has deployed four additional smart drumlines in the area today – at North Steyne, Dee Why and Mona Vale – in addition to the 30 deployed daily from Manly up to Palm Beach, when weather allows.
“NSW Government is strongly advising the community to stay out of the water following the significant deluge Sydney received this week,” DPI said in a statement. “Recent weather along the NSW coast continues to create conditions that significantly increase the likelihood of shark activity, especially bull sharks that are more active in these conditions.”
NSW premier Chris Minns said on Tuesday there was no “silver bullet” to prevent such attacks, but echoed expert warnings to avoid the water in dangerous conditions. He said he would look at shark control measures in other states, but would not support a cull.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
Police on Monday urged people not to swim in murky, low-visibility water after bucketing rain drenched Sydney and its surrounds at the weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, three teenagers leapt into action to save the life of a friend who was critically injured in a shark attack in eastern Sydney’s Vaucluse. The 12-year-old boy remained in hospital in a critical condition after surgery with injuries to both legs.
Extra fresh water in the harbour after recent heavy rain, combined with the splashing effect from people jumping off a rock face, created a “perfect storm” for Sunday’s shark attack, Supt Joseph McNulty said.
“I would recommend not swimming in the harbour or our other river systems across NSW at this time,” he told reporters before the Dee Why incident was reported.
Heavy swell had also prevented the operation of smart drumlines, which notify authorities of shark activity along most of the NSW coast since Sunday.
Attacks in the harbour are rare. A young woman survived after being bitten on the leg by a suspected bull shark at Elizabeth Bay in early 2024.
Psillakis’s death, at Long Reef beach on Sydney’s northern beaches, caused the state government to pull a trial to remove a handful of shark meshing nets off popular beaches.
