Abroad

The girl mauled by a shark in Perth was my daughter’s hockey mate. It’s devastating

We heard a 16-year-old girl had died after an attack. Then we discovered the victim was Stella Berry. It’s impossible to imagine her family’s grief

Swan River: Gill Kenny and her children in 2022, near where Stella Berry was fatally attacked by a shark

Gill Kenny
Thu Feb 9 2023 - 05:00

I shuddered when I heard on the radio on Saturday, at home in Perth, that a 16-year-old girl had died after a shark attack here. It was devastating to discover the next day that the victim was Stella Berry, a friend of my daughter’s. We’re struggling to come to terms with her death.

They were hockey mates – I’ve stood beside Stella’s loving parents at matches over the years; it’s impossible to imagine their grief.

An unusually large number of great white sharks have been spotted along the Perth coast in recent months, which could account for people taking to the river to swim instead

My daughter is reeling from the shock. Last night one of her closest friends revealed that he had been there with Stella and witnessed the entire ordeal. My daughter was inconsolable as she relayed the graphic details of what he had seen.

[ From Wexford MP to premier of Victoria: The Irishman who made a mark on two continents ]

The tragic event unfolded on a hot summer day by the Swan River, in Fremantle, a place people flock to all year round. We love it on a lazy Sunday. The river flows through Perth before making its way out to the Indian Ocean there. An unusually large number of great white sharks have been spotted along the Perth coast in recent months, which could account for people taking to the river to swim instead.

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Although the type of shark that attacked Stella hasn’t been officially confirmed, it is known that bull sharks love fresh water. They also have a reputation for being dangerous, because of their tendency to take large prey and to live in shallower water, often near human activity. Even so, deaths are very rare. It has been more than 100 years since the last fatality in Perth, when a young boy was attacked.

I have a fear of sharks – one not helped by a stunt a bunch of Aussies pulled the first time I swam in the sea in Australia

Some years ago, when our kids were still little, we bought a double kayak and went on a family trip along the Swan River. When our neighbour heard of this, he warned us about bull sharks. Until then I’d had no idea that such dangers lurked in its beautiful calm waters.

I have a fear of sharks – one not helped by a stunt a bunch of Aussies pulled the first time I swam in the sea in Australia, in 1992, when I was in my 20s. It was my first visit, as a tourist, and we’d been swimming from a boat in Sydney Harbour; suddenly they were pointing and yelling: “Shark, shark! Get out of the water, now!”

[ I was born in a mother and baby home. The nuns wanted Mammy to sign adoption papers ]

My throat constricted, I couldn’t breathe, and my heart felt as though it was going to burst out of my chest. I swam as fast as I could back to boat, grabbed the ladder and hauled myself up, shaking. My mouth was so dry that my tongue stuck to my palette. It turned out to be a joke. I never really got over it. I still remember the day like it was yesterday.

Once our neighbour told us about the sharks in the river, that fear put a stop to our family outings on the kayak, and I only ever swim in the ocean if there’s a reef or a net to stop sharks from reaching the shallow waters. The sole place I feel safe to swim in Australia is in the public baths.

Even if you tell me I have more chance of winning the lottery than of being taken by a shark, I won’t believe you. Stella Berry will live on in my memory as a beautiful and talented young woman who was taken way too soon. May she rest in peace.

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