A surfer was attacked by a shark at Sydney's famous Bondi Beach today, seriously injuring his left hand and arm.
The shark attacked the 23-year-old surfer just before dark. "He said he felt a tug on his arm. When he looked down he saw a bad bite on his left hand and arm," a police spokesman said. "He yelled for help and nearby surfers assisted him. Some off-duty doctors on the beach helped stem the bleeding."
It was the first shark attack at Bondi for decades. The last fatal attack at Bondi was in 1929.
The attack comes one day after a navy diver was attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour. The diver lost a hand and has severe injuries to a leg.
There have been at least four other shark attacks so far this Australian summer, one of them fatal. Last month, there were three shark attacks in Australian waters in just two days.
Wildlife officials say Sydney's cleaner ocean water, due to offshore sewage outlets and stormwater cages, has encouraged marine life closer to shore, which in turn has attracted sharks.
Shark nets are used off all of Sydney's ocean beaches. They are rectangular pieces of net suspended in the water between buoys. The nets are not intended to form a complete barrier and sharks can still get through. The nets act as a deterrent by interrupting the territorial swimming patterns of sharks.
In the past 50 years, there have been 60 fatal shark attacks off Australia’s coast. Several species of shark including the great white, tiger and bull shark, are dangerous to humans. None are thought to target people and specialists say attacks occur when a shark confuses swimmers, surfers and divers with its usual prey.