Shark Attack at Popular Western Australia Surf Spot

17-year-old Cooper Black was on the boat that assisted in the rescue.

“There was a guy who was about 30 to 40 (years old), just swimming, it was pretty deep out,” Black told Perth Now. “He didn’t even really see us, he kind of popped his head up and said hello and then swam off and got a bit further away from the boat and started waving his hands around and screaming for help. We pulled the anchor up and went and helped him out, and he sat on the transom there. We brought him back to shore and he took off.”

From there, an ambulance was not called to the scene, but the man did see a doctor for surgery.

This incident is just the latest in a string of recent attacks in Western and Southern Australia. Most recently, earlier this month, 37-year-old Steven Payne was surfing the picturesque Wharton Beach, in Esperance, when he was attacked and killed by a shark. Unreleased drone video footage showed “a lot of blood in the water”; only his surfboard was recovered after the attack with bite marks; and onlookers, including his girlfriend, watched the whole thing go down from the beach. Tragic.

For Western Australians, however, it’s just part of their reality. Following the most recent attack in Port Beach, Black added: “You swim in the ocean every day, it’s part of the marine life, you know.”