50 year Old Mother Of Three Saves Bather From Great White Shark Attack

Horror on the Beach.

And in our “It’s Been a Bloody Spring” Department, we present the seventh (or is it eighth?) shark attack since the beginning of March…

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Mum rescues man savaged by white pointer

Winsor Dobbin
May 11, 2008

A MOTHER of three was hailed a hero after risking her life to rescue a stranger from a shark.

A white pointer up to five metres long (sixteen feet in real measurement) attacked schoolteacher Jason Cull, 37, while he was swimming with dolphins at Middleton Beach, in front of the Albany Surf Life Saving Club nte at 7.20am yesterday.

Joanne Lucas, 50, who was on the beach after arriving early for surfboat rowing practice, dived into the water after hearing Mr Cull’s screams for help. “I just saw someone thrashing in the water and saying ‘Help me, help me,’ th” she said.

“I thought it was just a dolphin [in the water] but someone else was screaming, `He has been attacked,’ so I raced down there.”

Mrs Lucas swam 80 metres offshore to retrieve Mr Cull as the shark, one of several sighted off the beach, circled. “Just before I got to him he said, ‘It’s got my leg.’ I grabbed him and swam back to shore.”

She found “great big chunks” missing from one of his legs.

Great Southern Region Surf Life Saving support services co-ordinator Tom Marron praised Mrs Lucas’s “act of incredible bravery”.

“She heard him shout out for help and dived in with no regard for her own safety,” he said.

“He suffered a fair bite. If she hadn’t followed her instinct, or had been a bit later, then the bloke could have bled to death or been dragged out by the shark. What she did was brilliant.”

Mrs Lucas told Mr Marron: “I’d always wondered what I’d do in that situation, and now I know.”

Personally, the Beast knows what he’d do in that situation: Piss himself and cry like a six year old girl.

Here’s the fun part - Whites are protected in Australia so they can’t just fish it out. But of course it’s long gone, right?

More Details from TheWest.com.Au

Shark still menacing beach after attack

10th May 2008, 11:00 WST

Late this afternoon the shark was still menacing beachgoers by refusing to move out of the bay and into open water.

It was being tracked by the Albany Sea Rescue who have spent most of the day trying to shepherd it out to sea.

Albany Sea Rescue vice president Rob Jackman told thewest.com.au that a crew had been out on a rescue boat since 8.30am trying to escort the large 4m long shark out to sea.

Mr Jackman said the shark was proving difficult to move away from the beach.

“We are trying to shepherd the shark out to sea but at the moment we are having no luck. It just seems to want to swim around in the same spot, it chops and changes he swims out a bit and then he comes in,” Mr Jackman said.

“We are really just providing a bit of noise in the water to try and say go away you don’t need to stay here… it’s going to be a long long day.”

The shark is estimated to be about 100m to 200m off shore at Middleton Beach.

One hopes that if throwing firecrackers at a Sixteen Great White foot doesn’t work they have a Plan B. Maybe they should set up speakers and Blare “Men At Work” Songs at it. A few bars of “Land Down Under” can clear a tavern in seconds.

Of course, then there’s this quote from TheAge.com

(Albany Surf Club spokesman Tom Marron) said three sharks - two four metres in size and one more than five metres - were heading towards other swimmers.

Yeah, there were up to four of the beasties out there loitering about as the woman described as “about four foot eight” took off after the victim. The attacking shark never left - it hung out about ten feet away as she swam to him and dragged him in.