The Australian authorities are searching this Thursday for the huge white shark that killed a man the day before on Little Bay beach, in south Sydney, in the first deadly attack in Australia’s most populous city in almost 60 years.
Following this tragic incident, local authorities today closed dozens of beaches, from Bondi, one of the most popular with tourists, to Cronulla, in the extreme south of the city, on a day in which temperatures exceeded 30 degrees in Sydney.
Likewise, the authorities activated an intense search operation and capture along some 25 kilometers of coastline by sea and by air, with helicopters and drones, to capture the shark, while placing six special computerized traps.
NSW State Fisheries Minister Dugald Saunders, who described Wednesday’s fatal attack as a “devastating incident”admitted that it might be difficult to find the shark due to its hovering abilities.
“It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we’ve seen sharks travel great distances,” Saunders told Sky News television.
The great white shark, which is estimated to be between 3 and 5 meters in length, attacked a as yet unidentified man swimming off Little Beach in an incident that was caught on video by a witness.
Yesterday afternoon, the authorities managed to recover the remains of the man, who is the first fatality of a shark attack in Sydney since the January 28, 1963 when Australian actress Marcia Hathaway was bitten to death by a bull shark in Sugarloaf Bay.
Last year there were 18 shark attacks in Australia, of which three were fatal, while in 2020 there were 26 attacks, with 8 deaths.
The great white, which can measure up to 5.5 meters in length and feeds on fish and other species such as rays, marine mammals, crustaceans and seabirds.acquired worldwide fame as a murderer in the 1970s with the film “Jaws” directed by Steven Spielberg.