Beaches are closed as shark attack leaves bodyboarder fighting for life

A surfer has suffered life-threatening injuries after the latest in a series of shark attacks off Australia’s central east coast. The 38-year-old was attacked while bodyboarding with a friend 400 yards off Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie, New South Wales. The shark bit him several times, leaving him with critical injuries to his stomach and back. New South Wales Police said the man was carried out of the water and treated on the beach by paramedics. He was taken to Port Macquarie Hospital and is due to be flown to Sydney for surgery.

These sharks are coming in waist-deep water sometimes, it’s a bit scary. You can virtually see them in the breakers. It’s totally unprecedented.

David Wright, mayor of Ballina

All beaches in the area have been closed until further notice, officers said. Marine investigators are trying to identify the species of shark from the bite pattern and forensic examination. The attack was the 11th in five months along a 12-mile stretch of coast around the tourist town of Ballina, where a 41-year-old Japanese tourist was killed in February. The only fatal attack in Australia since then was last month when diver Damian Johnson, 46, was mauled by a suspected great white off Tasmania, 1,000 miles south of Ballina.

World shark attack