SurferMag Message Boards: Australia Implements 'Shark Index'

MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT - GUARDIAN . UK

Shark attacks bring panic to Sydney's shore

Big race cancelled after unprecedented wave of sightings around the harbour and Bondi beach

On a normal Australian summer, thousands of beachgoers would be congregating today on white sands to cheer on participants in the annual swimming and canoeing race from Sydney Harbour Bridge to Manly Beach. Not this year. Instead, there is a palpable air of tension on Sydney's shores.

An unprecedented increase in shark sightings, and three attacks in two weeks - on a diver and two surfers - has led to the cancellation of the 11km Bridge to Beach race and calls for a "shark index" similar to the ultraviolet sun index to advise on the daily risk of an encounter.

The first attack took place in the harbour on 11 February, within sight of the Opera House, when a naval diver on a pre-dawn exercise lost a hand and a leg after being mauled by a 2.7m bull shark. A day later, a great white shark nearly severed the left hand of a 33-year-old surfing alone at the southern end of Bondi beach. Although surgeons reattached his hand, it was subsequently amputated.

Fifteen-year-old Andrew Lindop was also attacked by a great white while surfing early in the morning with his father at Avalon beach in north Sydney.

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