CERVANTES, Australia (6 Mar 2004) -- A DIVER was attacked twice by a shark off Cervantes yesterday. The 47-year-old Ocean Reef man was bitten on his right leg both times by a 1.5m bronze whaler. He was spear-fishing in deep water five nautical miles northwest of the fishing settlement, 250km north of Perth. His fishing mates dragged him into their boat and wrapped his wounds in a towel. The shark had ripped through the man's wetsuit and mauled his shin and calf. When the boat reached shore, retiree Alan Ogden drove the injured diver about 25km from Cervantes to the Jurien Bay nursing post. "He was a pretty tough bloke, Mr Ogden said. "There was a lot of blood everywhere. He was looking a bit white but said he felt all right. "He was quite calm about it. He said it was not hurting as much as he thought it would." The diver told Mr Ogden he had been attacked by the bronze whaler in about 14m of murky water. "The shark bit him once on the front of the leg and then came back and had another go," Mr Ogden said. "It bit him near the shinbone. He had dropped the spear gun and was more worried about that than the injuries because he had borrowed it from a mate." Mr Ogden had been sitting on the beach at Cervantes watching crayboats when the diver's boat came racing to shore. "There were four blokes in the boat and it was coming in pretty quick," he said. "One of them jumped out and ran along the beach asking if there was a medical centre in town. | | © Charles Maxwell "I told him it would be unattended, put him in my van and took him to Teddy Randle, an `ambo' in town. "Teddy didn't want to unwrap the towel because the blood had stopped, so I left him in the van and took him to Jurien." The diver was transferred to Joondalup Health Campus and was in a stable condition last night with his wife at his bedside. He was expected to have surgery last night. The attack happened close to where diver Bob Bartle was fatally savaged by a great white in 1967. It follows the mauling in January of diver Allan Oppert off Binningup Beach, just north of Bunbury. Mr Oppert suffered serious leg injuries after being bitten by a 4.5m great white 25km offshore. WA's last fatal shark attack was at North Cottesloe in 2000 when swimmer Ken Crew was savaged just metres from the beach. SOURCE - Sunday Mail |
