08/31/2022 - Sunni Pace 14 - Australia - NSW

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A Warning From North Avoca
Sunni Pace made it back in from his shark encounter on the last day of winter. It’s a red flag for the rest of us.

“Little bit of pain, yeah.”

Sunni Pace, 14 years old and sounding amazingly calm, was talking about the fresh wound in his right forearm.

This wound was sustained on Wednesday morning at North Avoca beach on the NSW central coast, when Sunni and his cousin Marley had an encounter with what they think was a bronze whaler shark.

The pair, along with Sunni’s older sis Lucha, 16, were doing what they always do: go surfing at their local spot. Lucha was still on the sand, velcroing on the legrope. Marley and Sunni were out the back. “We were both sitting on our boards,” recalls Sunni. “Marley felt a thing come under him. He went, ‘What was that??’ We thought, a seal, there’s been seals around. Then it grabbed me.

What the shark did. All photos courtesy Pace family.

“I was in shock, I didn’t know what to do. Then it let go and I paddled in really fast.”

Sunni lives with mum Ami, dad Aaron, and Lucha just a little run down the road from North Avoca. Aaron, a great surfer himself, got the groms into it so young, Sunni just says, “I’ve always been surfing.”

The kids surf most days and seem totally aware of sharks, and sea life generally. “I’ve seen a couple swim under me,” says Sunni. “Surfed near bait balls and stuff.”

Ami often walks down with them. “I’d always yell after them, ‘Watch out for the sharks!’” she says. “Then I decided just yesterday that I wouldn’t do that any more, and I didn’t. Then he shows up at the door (with the injury).”

Sunni’s lucky, really. The wound took five stitches to close, and he sounds like the kind of kid who’ll be back in the water as soon as he possibly can. His shark-bit board and ripped wettie are going up in his room — trophies of this brief encounter.

The bandaged supergrommet and trophy board.

On a trip to Grajagan earlier this year with his Dad. Scoring!

But Sunni’s luck might serve as a warning to the rest of us.

Spring is becoming a time along the Aussie east coast when surfer/shark encounters, attacks, and worse, are growing slowly more frequent. A year ago next Monday, for instance, Tuncurry surfer Tim Thompson died in an attack near Coffs Harbour. Eight years ago a week from Saturday, Paul Wilcox died after an encounter off Byron main beach, sparking the worst shark attack cluster in Australian history, most of which involved surfers.

Experts will tell you there’s no one reason for a shark encounter to turn dangerous. There are theories about white shark/whale migration patterns, increases and decreases in inshore fish populations, all sorts of gear.

But there’s still only one common factor in all shark attacks and incidents: A person and a shark are in the same piece of water, at the same time.

Avoca is meshed by Department of Primary Industries contractors in the spring and summer months. (The meshing went in today.) The DPI also have Smart drumlines off the beach, designed to capture the bigger species — whites, tigers and bulls. Neither would likely have prevented Sunni’s encounter with the bronzie, if that’s what species it was.

The Paces will get past this one. We hope it’s the last we have to report on this season. We fear it won’t be.

https://www.surfline.com

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Teen Bitten by Great White in New South Wales

A teenage boy has been bitten by a great white in New South Wales.

Paramedics responded to a shark bite at North Avoca beach about 7am Wednesday morning. The unnamed teen sustained puncture wounds to his hand and went home before calling paramedics. Wounds were treated and then the teen was taken to Gosford hospital. The hospital reported that the teen had been discharged.

Central Coast council has asked that Avoca and North Avoca beaches be avoided.

Source: The Guardian