Tributes have poured in for an outstanding young surfer who died after getting attacked by a great white shark in Australia. Khai Cowley was described as a “standout” talent, his club has said, who also coached his grandfather and uncle – with all three winning awards at a recent surfing festival.
Seaview Road Board Riders said on Facebook that it was in a state of “disbelief and devastation” following the 15-year-old’s gruesome death. It added: “You will live on in our hearts and memories. We will all miss you so much and will keep on shredding for you.”
It was the third deadly shark incident in waters off South Australia since May, and took place near Ethel Beach in Innes National Park, just west of Adelaide. While Khai’s body was brought to shore, bodies of previous shark attack victims this year in South Australia have not been recovered.
State premier Peter Malinauskas said the spate of fatal attacks this year were “startling and of concern”, given there were just eight in the previous twenty-two years, reports Sky News.
Adelaide-based shark expert Andrew Fox said the increase was difficult to explain, although did add that overcast conditions, such as those present at the time of the attack on Thursday, can encourage sharks to attack.
In May, a 46-year-old teacher, Simon Baccanello, died in a suspected shark attack while surfing at Walkers Rock Beach, which is 365km west of Adelaide. Tod Gendle, 55, was also killed in October at Granite Beach on the state’s west coast.
Professor Charlie Huveneers, a shark expert from Flinders University, puts the rise down to various interlinking environmental factors. Habitat destruction, declining water quality and climate change has likely influenced the matter, he says.
Huveneers says there are a few ways to reduce the risk of shark attacks. The first is to establish swimming enclosures or aerial surveillance to lower the chances of human-shark overlap. The second would be to use personal electrical deterrents, while he also advises people to wear bite-resistant wetsuits.
Nevertheless, state premier Malinauskas points out that: “We’ve got a coastline in South Australia that’s basically the equivalent of New South Wales and Victoria combined,” he said.
“It’s impossible to net the entire area.”
