Stab Magazine | It Never Ends: Another Shark Attack In Ballina

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It Never Ends: Another Shark Attack In Ballina

Surfer taken to hospital with minor injuries after another attack at Sharpes Beach, Ballina. 

news // Oct 12, 2016
Words by stab
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Another surfer has been injured in a shark attack while surfing Sharpes Beach in the now-notorious Ballina region.

Witness Scott Crump, who was surfing nearby, heard the victim “yell out” before rushing to shore to help.

“I just heard him yell out,” he told Stab via Facebook. “Really gnarly, and we all headed in. He got to the beach on his own. He was very coherent.”

“He was hit but it looked like maybe just one tooth got him on the shin. Probably five to 10 stitches by looking at it after it cleared… fucken lucky. Judging by the bite on the fin cluster and what the guy said, (it) was a good-sized shark. Not massive, but.”

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According to Crump, a large pod of dolphins had passed through the area just prior to the attack.

“So much for them being a saviour,” he said.

The attack is the seventh in the area stretching from Evans Head to Byron Bay since September 2014, including two fatalities. It comes just 16 days after local teenager Cooper Allen was bitten on the upper thigh while surfing nearby Lighthouse Beach, also in Ballina.

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