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02/10/2010 Paul Welsh ( Australia )

Recent listing of shark attacks 2010 and Shark Attack Related Incidents in 2010.
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helmi
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Re: 02/10/2010 Paul Welsh ( Australia )

Post by helmi »

'Great white' shark was a wobbegong

2010/02/11.
By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop.

A scientist has ruled out claims a Sydney surfer was attacked by a great white shark this morning, pinpointing the attacker as the usually docile, bottom-dwelling wobbegong.

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Paul Welsh was attacked by a wobbegong while teaching his 10-year-old son to surf. (ABC News)

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Paul Welsh's injury, photographed by shark spotter Michael Brown. (user submitted: Michael Brown)

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Wobbegongs are not usually associated with aggresion or attacks, unless stepped on.

Paul Welsh, 46, was attacked while teaching his 10-year-old son to surf about 8am AEDT at the Mona Vale Basin on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Mr Welsh said he had to cling to a rock to fight off the animal, which had latched onto his leg.

"I just felt something grab my leg and it tried to pull me under, as they do, and I just grabbed a rock so it wasn't going to pull me under," he said.

"I just kicked as hard as I could and it opened up its jaws and let me go. Obviously I wasn't the right food, so I live to fight another day.

"I didn't see it [but] my son said he saw it before, which he obviously didn't tell me and he waited for dad to get bitten.

"Rather me than him, because it probably would have taken his leg off."

By the time his wife had driven him to hospital, Mr Welsh had already sold his story to Channel Nine News.

Channel Seven later bought video footage of the aftermath of the attack.

Shark spotter Michael Brown told reporters he had witnessed the ordeal while swimming with his own son just 30 metres away.

Mr Brown, who has been pushing for greater protections against sharks, said the animal that bit Mr Welsh appeared to be a two-metre great white, by the look of its tail.

"[He] just had a big bite mark in his leg and blood just streaming out of it," he told the ABC.

"I'm quite shaken and I spend my life researching, following and working with sharks, but to be that close to an actual attack and to be faced with the fact that it could've been my child, it's definitely had a life-changing impact. There's no two ways about that."

The victim was released from hospital around midday after doctors found a tooth fragment in his leg.

Stirring shark fears

The beach was closed as a helicopter searched for the shark, but it was left to a scientist to find out the truth.

Tests by a biologist confirmed the fragment came from a 1.6-metre-long wobbegong, a shark not usually associated with aggression or attacks, unless it is stepped on.

Mr Brown has stirred fears about sharks in Sydney in the past.

After three attacks in the city last summer, he accused the NSW Government of ignoring warnings that shark numbers were on the rise.

Today he told reporters an increasing number of sharks were being spotted on the Northern Beaches.

But NSW Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan has questioned Mr Brown's integrity in light of this afternoon's revelation.

"It certainly wasn't a great white shark and I think you'd not have to know too much about sharks to actually know the difference," he said.

"A wobbegong shark is brown. It tends to dwell on the bottom, it doesn't come in from the top and really I think that's perhaps being generous to the panic of the situation.

"It doesn't fill you with confidence, does it?"

Mr Brown runs SurfWatch Australia, a small voluntary shark patrolling organisation that charges people at least $50 to come along for the helicopter ride.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... ion=justin
sharkbait
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Re: 02/10/2010 Paul Welsh ( Australia )

Post by sharkbait »

GREAT WHITE ATTACK IN MONA VALE
Mona Vale shark attack victim Paul Welsh
Mona Vale shark attack victim Paul Welsh
paul_welsh.jpg (8.6 KiB) Viewed 24766 times
A MAN has been rushed to Mona Vale Hospital after being attacked by a great white shark at 8am today.

The man, Paul Welsh, was surfing with his 10-year-old son, close to shore, when the 2m shark attacked him in shallow waters.

Welsh sustained deep lacerations to his legs. He has one, possibly two shark’s teeth still in his leg.

“I was pushing my son on to waves and it just belted me from behind,’’ Welsh told The Manly Daily minutes after the attack.

“I grabbed on to the pinnacle of a rock and held on as it tried to drag me out.... and I won.’’

Witnesses said Welsh grabbed on to the rocks to try and pull himself to shore and the great white tried to drag him back into the water.

Welsh managed to break free and scramble to shore.

His wife drove him to Mona Vale Hospital for treatment.


http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/ne ... mona-vale/
sharkbait
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Re: 02/10/2010 Paul Welsh ( Australia )

Post by sharkbait »

Surfer bitten in Sydney shark attack

A man bitten by a shark on Sydney's northern beaches this morning will be out of hospital by the end of the day, health authorities say.

Police said the 46-year-old Mona Vale man - identified as Paul Welsh by News Ltd - was in about a metre of water at Basin Bay, just north of Mona Vale Beach, when what's believed to be "a small shark" bit him on his left leg about 8am.

He made it out of the water and his wife drove him to Mona Vale Hospital, where he is recovering well, a NSW Health spokesman said.
The shark attack victim with his family. Photo: Matt Jones
The shark attack victim with his family. Photo: Matt Jones
paul_welsh1.jpg (37.7 KiB) Viewed 24766 times
The shark attack victim with his family. Photo: Matt Jones

"He’ll be out of hospital by the end of the day."


Mr Welsh has signed an exclusive deal with Channel Nine, a NSW Health spokeswoman said.


Earlier today he told The Manly Daily the shark was a two-metre great white but police said he did not see the shark.

Its size and type was unknown, Northern Beaches Local Area Command duty officer Inspector Paul Green said.

"I was pushing my son on to waves and it just belted [me]," Mr Welsh told the paper.

"I grabbed on to the pinnacle of a rock and held on as it tried to drag me out ... and I won."

Surfwatch Australia director Michael Brown was in the water swimming with his teenage son when the attack occurred.

"We were just having a bit of a swim and all of a sudden we looked sideways and there was all this thrashing going on in the water," Mr Brown said.

"I could see a guy, he was out there just having a bit of a surf and it looks like a great white has come in underneath him, shot straight up, hit him like a freight train, knocked him up out of the water.

"He’s obviously freaked out. He reckons it was the biggest impact he’d ever felt in his life.

"Luckily for him he’s had the chance to grab hold of a rock and while he's hanging on to the rock the shark’s still latched on to his leg trying to drag him back out to sea. It was unbelievable.

"And then finally after what seemed like minutes, which was obviously only seconds, the shark's let go and he’s crawled over the rocks, blood just pouring down his leg, and you can see a distinctive bite mark."

Mr Brown said he did not get a clear look at the shark but believed it was a great white.

"I saw a bit of the tail, which looked like a [great] white," he said.

"I'm more drawing my conclusion on the fact that whites have a very specific hunting technique, that is that they come in under their victim and then they shoot straight up vertically and then really smash in to them to try and sort of stun them and that’s what the shark’s done this morning.

"So everything about the way this attack has taken place indicates that it is probably a juvenile great white or adolescent great white."

The beach was closed this morning following the attack, Mona Vale Surf Life Saving Club president John Dibbs said.

A water police boat and inflatable boat were out doing laps to try to find the shark. The water was very clear, Mr Dibbs said.


"I've been there 30 years and I think we've cleared the beach for shark alarms three or four times," he said.


"And sometimes it's a dolphin."

In February last year, navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder lost a hand and a leg and was lucky to survive after being mauled by a 2.7-metre bull shark in Sydney Harbour.

Just a day later, 33-year-old surfer Glenn Orgias was attacked at Bondi Beach by a 2.5-metre great white that shook him and nearly severed his left hand.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/surfer-b ... -nszo.html
sharkbait
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02/10/2010 Paul Welsh ( Australia )

Post by sharkbait »

Forty-six-year-old Paul Welsh is recovering in hospital after being attacked by what police have described as a four-foot-long shark at the Mona Vale Basin about 8:00am (AEDT).---



I fought off a shark: Sydney surfer


Audio: Witness Michael Brown recounts the attack (ABC Sydney) Map: Mona Vale 2103
A surfer says he clutched onto a rock as a shark tried to drag him back into the water after biting his leg on Sydney's Northern Beaches this morning.

Forty-six-year-old Paul Welsh is recovering in hospital after being attacked by what police have described as a four-foot-long shark at the Mona Vale Basin about 8:00am (AEDT).

Mr Welsh has told the Manly Daily he was surfing with his 10-year-old son close to the shore when he was bitten.

"I was pushing my son onto waves and it just belted me from behind," the newspaper quotes him as saying shortly after the attack.

"I grabbed on to the pinnacle of a rock and held on as it tried to drag me out... and I won.''

It is understood Mr Welsh had already sold the rest of his story to a commercial TV station by the time he reached Mona Vale Hospital.

A spokesman for Northern Sydney and Central Coast Health says the victim will be released from hospital with minor injuries by 1:00pm (AEDT).


'Absolutely surreal'

The director of a company that patrols for sharks and sells joyflights says he was in the water with his 13-year-old son when they saw the attack.

"It was absolutely unbelievable, absolutely surreal..." SurfWatch Australia director Michael Brown told ABC 702 Sydney Local Radio.

"About 30 odd metres behind us, we turned around and saw a whole lot of thrashing in the water, and it looks like - I'm not sure exactly if it was a great white - but this shark has come in from underneath the guy.

"It's launched straight up into him, knocked him out of the water and then latched onto his leg, and luckily, he had a chance to grab onto a rock and the shark's actually thrashing, trying to drag him back into the water.

"He's managed to release himself from the shark and crawl up onto the rocks and just had a big bite mark in his leg and blood just streaming out of it.

"We got him up onto the beach and straight into the car and his wife has run him straight up to the hospital.

"An absolutely unbelievable scene this morning. Quite frankly, I'm feeling a bit shook up. It could have been myself or my 13-year-old son."


Several sharks spotted

Lifesavers closed the beach after the attack.

Mr Brown says bait fish have attracted many sharks to the area over the past month.

"There's been a big three-metre great white off Avalon the other day and we've had big great whites off Palm Beach..." he said.

"When you have huge schools of target species like tunas and king fish and that sort of thing, it's the big factor that draws the sharks in."

He says the attack has transformed his perspective on his work.

"It's not as if I'm naive to the fact that they're there. I think that with most of us, we live under the premise that it's never going to happen to us, it's always somebody else.

"So I think to be so close to the attack and to be so exposed to the fact that it could've been us, I think it's definitely had a fairly major impact on my life.

"I'm quite shaken and I spend my life researching, following and working with sharks, but to be that close to an actual attack and to be faced with the fact that it could've been my child, it's definitely had a life-changing impact. There's no two ways about that."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... =australia
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