COTTLESTOE BEACH (AUSTRALIA)- It is believed that a 64-year old swimmer at Western Australia’s Cottesloe Beach who went missing last year October was attacked by a great white shark. A coronial inquest on his suspected death was done this week.
The 64-year old man from Mosman Park disappeared on October 10 last year while on his morning swim at Cottesloe Beach. He had been doing his morning routine of swimming to a buoy 500m offshore for more than a decade.
On the morning of his disappearance, the man was last seen swimming about 200m from the shore.
According to the inquest witnesses saw splashing and a dark shadow near where the swimmer was last seen but nobody saw him being attacked by a shark.
No trace of him was found, except for his torn bathers lying on the ocean floor.
Department of Fisheries researchers, who examined the bathers, told the court tear marks on the Speedos were consistent with bite marks from a great white.
State Coroners will deliver their findings at a later date, but already said there was overwhelming evidence that the swimmer had been killed by a great white shark.
In Western Australia new protocols have been put in place which could mean government-ordered culling of sharks that present a clear danger to the public – by swimming too close to shore – after five fatal attacks in WA waters since September 2011.
Last Sunday, a huge shark forced the cancellation of a swimming carnival at close by Leighton Beach, North Fremantle.
Read more at Daily Telegraph