The serious attacks are mainly by four species. The Bull shark. the Tiger, the Great White and the Oceanic Whitetip shark. The Grey Nurse (Sand Tiger) and the Bronze Whaler have for many years been blamed for many attacks but it seems nearly all were mistaken identity. The Grey Nurse is now protected in most States in Australia. The Great White is the largest and has a high percentage of fatal attacks. The Bull shark is responsible for a lot of attacks on swimmers and people in shallow water. From reports it seems a lot of these attacks were only one bite but a large percentage of the victims died of blood loss and shock.
It is likely to be the worlds number one killer shark on swimmers. I have heard of a lot of encounters with scuba divers but have so far been unable to find any attacks. The Tiger shark usually spends daylight hours in deep water and comes into shallow areas around reefs and coastline during the night. It has been responsible for a large number of deaths. This includes swimmers, surfers and scuba divers. Many divers swim with these sharks with no problem but a large Tiger shark is more than capable of killing a human. Overall, there are very few fatal attacks on scuba divers.
I have not been able to find any over the last twenty years except for one in 1991 and two in 1993. Ironically these were both in the same month. They were all by Great White sharks. According to the book, Shark Attacks by Mac Mc Diarmid, 9 out of 10 shark attacks happen within 1. 6 metres of the surface. One third of attacks are fatal. Most victims are male. Although there have been very few fatal attacks on scuba divers, there have been quite a few on spearfisherman and abalone divers. Many of these fatal attacks have occurred in South Australia in areas well known for Great Whites.
Abalone divers nearly always work in areas where seals are present and the water is cool. This is ideal for attracting the Great White. Add to this the fact that they spend an enormous time in the water and it is a recipe for disaster. It was noticed in California USA, that Abalone divers were only attacked north of Point Conception. It was later discovered that the law in North California did not allow abalone divers to use scuba equipment, which meant they spent much more time at the surface. In southern California scuba was permitted!
Spearfishing has two major negative factors. The first is that they are working on the surface as it is illegal to spearfish with scuba equipment. It is well known that the Great White usually attacks on, or very close to the surface, coming up from below its intended prey. The second problem with spearfishing is obviously the dead fish and blood attracting sharks. Even usually non-aggressive species of sharks will attack a spearfisherman if he has killed a fish. The book ‘Shark Attacks’ by Alex MacCormick (1996) also wrote of this incident.
It seems this information was taken from ‘The Adelaide Advertiser’ newspaper in 1962. The book wrote the following: “In a gallant rescue bid a fellow spearfisherman tied the injured youth to his surf ski and beat the shark off for ten minutes with a paddle before making it to shore. The dead youth was Geoffry Martin Corner, son of Mr and Mrs A. M. Corner of Nautilus Road, Elizabeth East, who were on the beach at the time of the attack. … The shark circled several of about sixteen other spearfisherman within 200 yards of Mr. Corner before lunging at him as he made his dive.
The shark, belived to be a fourteen foot Bronze Whaler, grabbed the boy’s right leg between the calf and the theigh in it’s two-foot jaws and shook him violently before releasing him. … … The attack was seen by fellow club member Allen Phillips, 27 of Reedle Street, Henley Beach, who was about ten yards away, towing a surf ski… Mr. Phillips climbed on his surf ski and paddled over to the boy’s body only half out of the water, he lashed it to the ski with a piece of plastic wire he was carrying, while at the same time beating off frenzied lunges by the shark.
The battle lasted ten minutes before Mr Phillips could make for the shore with the shark still following and circling him. In the meantime, Murray Bampton, a member of the Knights of Neptune Underwater Club, who had just brought in a man with cramp to shore, saw the struggle and went out on his surf ski to help. Mr. Bampton kept the shark away with his paddle, while Mr. Phillips continued in. When in a few feet of water, the two men carried the boy on Mr. Phillip’s ski to the beach. Sister Heather Jones, who was on the beach, ran over to help. “
The book ‘Great White Shark’ by Richard Ellis and John McCosker (1991) wrote the following about the incident. You will notice the name of the area is spelt differently, the breed of shark is different, there is no mention of Mr. Bampton and his holding the shark off nor the frenzied shark battle that lasted ten minutes. Also in this report the surf ski was shared by Corner and Phillips. ” The next year while 16-year-old Geoff Corner was participating in a spearfishing contest in about 25 feet of water off Caracalinga Head, South Australia, he was attacked by a large white shark.
His companion, Allen Phillips, banged the shark on the head with the paddles from the surf ski they had been using, and the shark released its grip and lay below the surf ski waiting. When Phillips then tried to pull Corner onto the ski, he found that he was already dead. The shark followed them into shore, but never attacked again. Phillips recognised the species by its pointed snout and black eye, and in retrospect the shark seems to have exhibited the ‘bite-and-wait’ tactic that seems to characterize the attack behaviour of the great white shark.
The next report comes from the book ‘Sharks – Silent Hunters of the Deep’. (1995). This report This report has different spelling for the victims name and the area. Also in this version Mr. Bampton becomes Brampton. You will also notice that instead of tying the victims body to the ski with plastic wire stated in another report he hooked his leg around him and paddled to shore. It is also interesting that Phillips could see the shark in the water laying beneath the ski looking at them when the water was reported to be covered in blood.
Death came more rapidly to another youngster, 16-year-old Jeff Corner, while spearfishing with a friend, Allen Phillips, at Caracalinga Head on the South Australian coast on 10 December 1962. Corner was the state junior spearfishing champion and the pair were about 180m (197 yards) offshore while taking part in a competition. Phillips was pleased when, surfacing after a dive, he saw a commotion in the water around Corner, thinking’Jeff’s got a big one. ‘ Seconds later, he saw a large sharks tail break the water and thought ‘it’s probably pinching fish off the float’.
He swam over to his friend and found himself in a cloud of blood. Sick with horror, he swam for their surf ski and paddled over. He tried to pull his friend onto the ski, but realised that the shark still had him in its grip. Corner disappeared beneath the ski and emerged on the other side. Phillips caught him by the shoulders and, still feeling the sharks grip, smashed at it with ski paddles. Suddenly it let go. Phillips pulled Corner half onto the ski, while the great white shark lay just beneath the surface looking at them. Corner could not speak;his eyes rolled back.
His theigh had been bitten away and his leg was horribly mutilated. Phillips, one leg hooked around his friend’s inert body, paddled frantically. The shark followed. Another spearfisherman, Murray Brampton, paddled across and struck at the shark with his paddle. This email was received from Jon Wadrop who was there on the day. It differs quite a lot. EMAIL May 31st 1999 Dear Stephen Have just read the report on the shark attack on Geoffrey Corner at Carrickalinga in 1962. As I was one of the people that pulled Geoffrey in that day, I must state that the report is in fact incorrect.
I was spearfishing on the day, it was a club outing, and all divers had exited the water except for Geoffrey–who I believe was a junior club member. The actual details are sketchy bearing in mind the number of years that have elapsed since the incident, however, forever in my mind is Brian Kennington’s and my involvement in the recovery of the body. It was sometime early to mid afternoon, a wind had come up and the water was dirty, and someone noticed that there was blood in the water some distance off shore. There were no water craft available and no one was interested in entering the water for obvious reasons.
As foolhardy as it may have been, Brian and I decided to swim out and attempt a rescue. We knew the general direction he was in, distance was approximately 100-200 yards offshore, but were fortunately able to locate him quite quickly. We towed him back to shore between us. Unfortunately, Geoffrey was dead when we reached him. His actual injuries are etched in my mind and I can still see them. We may have been met close in shore by someone on a surf ski, however, the details are somewhat sketchy from there on as proceedings became pretty confused. .
I have often wondered in the intervening years if anyone had in fact claimed credit for the attempted rescue. I am not a glory seeker, I would just like to see the record set straight. It is obvious from the brevity of the report on the internet that there is not a lot of detail available, hopefully, this will throw a little more light on the situation. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further help. Just as a matter of intererst, I gave up spear fishing and scuba diving at that time, the effect was so great on me, however, I have just recommenced diving again–37 years later.
The attack on the windsurfer in SA on the weekend prompted me to search the net for information on shark attacks. – Jon Wadrop We would like to thank Mr. Wadrop for taking the time and trouble to write. After seeing the differences in these reports always bear in mind that people can remember different things and reports can often be incorrect. Writers will often get most of the essence of the story right but might embellish it a little for their readers. There is an old newspaper saying ‘Never let the facts get in the way of a good story’.
With that in mind, never take anything you read as being perfectly accurate. Since then we received the following email in Jan 2000 “My name is Brian Kennington. The information you give from the report by Jon Wardrop is fairly correct. Jon and I were in the car park which is elevated above the beach when someone noticed a red stain in the water and heard someone shouting. Jon showed considerable courage that day as we entered the water wearing only the bottom part of our wetsuits as we did not have the time to don the tops of which we had just divested ourselves.
We both carried loaded spearguns which we had loaded as we entered the water and swam out to where Allen Phillips was slowly making his way to shore. Allen yelled at us to get back as we neared him as he said the shark was still underneath him as he had Geoff’s body attached to his surf ski. He also said there was nothing we could do as Geoff was already dead. We returned to shore. At the time there was a bit of a shore break and as Allen neared the shore he stopped just outside the break and would not pass through it.
Jon and I entered the water and swam out to Allen, both minus our diving masks and spearguns and Allen untied the wire he had fixed Geoff to the surfski with so we could bring him back to shore. We carried his body up the beach on another surfski which someone, I do not know who, had brought to the water’s edge. Murray Bampton in the meantime had been paddling around to all the other skindivers who were in the water and was forcibly telling them to leave the water. He later received a silver medal for his bravery in the action.
However at no time do I recall him being in contact with Allen or Geoff and assisting with he retrieval of Geoff. In conversation later with Allen I asked him why he had not just paddled straight through the shore break. His answer was that the shark had followed him all the way to shore and was still under his surf ski. He was concerned that in negotiating the break he might have been overturned and the shark might have attacked again. Allen received a gold medal for his courage on the day. It might be of interest that Rod Fox was also on the beach that day. We were all members of the Knights Skindiving club.
