AUSTRALIA: Shark attacks surfer at famous Australian beach

A shark attacked a 25-year-old surfer off Australia's famous Bells Beach at dusk on Monday (December 18), mauling his left leg before the man managed to reach shore. Peter Galvin was surfing a shallow reef called Winki Pop, just near the famous Bells surf break on Australia's south coast, when the shark attacked him from below, authorities said on Tuesday (December 19). Galvin received puncture wounds to the top of his calf and a major gash under his knee and, after being treated by fellow surfers on the beach, was flown to hospital in Melbourne where he was in a serious but stable condition. Just over two weeks ago another surfer had his leg bitten off by a shark off a remote beach in Western Australia. The U.S. state of Florida annually records by far the most shark attacks. Between 1990 and 2005 there were 341 shark attacks off Florida, according to the U.S.-based International Shark Attack File, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm Over the same period Australia reported 74 attacks, South Africa 72, Brazil 62 and Hawaii 57. But Australia, which has larger sharks like Great Whites in its cold southern waters, topped had 18 fatal attacks compared with Brazil's 13, South Africa's nine and Florida's four. The International Shark Attack File estimates the odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million

ITN Source | December 19, 2006

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