Surfer Nicholas Edwards, 31, a mine worker and father of two children from Busselton died after being attacked by a shark at 8:15 AM on August 17, 2010 near Gracetown in the Margaret River area of Western Australia, according to a story in Western Australia Today.
Police and the RAC rescue helicopter were dispatched to a beach south of Cowaramup Bay near Gracetown this morning. . . The man was retrieved from the water and rushed to hospital, but police have confirmed he has died from his injuries. They could not say how old he was or confirm his identity. . . The man is believed to have been attacked while surfing on his own, at a beach only accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles.
According to a story on ABC.net.au a man watching the surf saw Edwards go down.
Rob Alder says he saw Mr Edwards lose his board and not come back up again. . . He rushed down to the beach with his friends and alerted a rescue crew. . . He says they found Mr Edwards washed up on rocks near South Point, lying unconscious with a huge gash to his leg. . . Mr Alder and his friends created a tourniquet using a surfboard leg rope and tried to resuscitate Mr Edwards for 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived. . . Eddie Kilgallon was one of the rescuers who tried, unsuccessfully, to resuscitate the man. . . Mr Kilgallon says Mr Edwards’s injuries were horrific. . . “[The] back half of his leg was totally chomped. It looked like one bite. It looked like a big shark bite,” he said.
The beach reportedly remains closed. Our thoughts are with Edwards family and friends.
[Link: Western Australia Today, ABC.net.au, and The Australian]
