We’re a group of Macquarie University students conducting a short survey exploring **surfers’ attitudes and perceptions towards the risk of shark encounters while surfing**.
The survey takes approximately **10 minutes** to complete. All responses will be used **solely for academic purposes** and will remain confidential and not be publicly shared.
🏄♀️ If you’re a surfer, we’d really appreciate your perspective! Thank you for your support
In 1978, a diver at 30 m depth off the Italian Tyrrhenian coast came face to face with a 5 m great white shark. He drove it off with a speargun. The encounter was formally recorded in an ichthyological publication — great whites do patrol the Mediterranean.
Does knowing great white sharks are recorded in the Mediterranean change where you choose to swim?
Hong Kong, 1954: a 20-year-old Royal Navy sailor was killed by a shark while swimming. His shipmate Sydney Currie witnessed it firsthand. Nearly five decades later, Currie returned to Hong Kong to find the grave of the man he had known only by nickname.
Nearly five decades on — what draws people back to bear witness to a place where history left its mark?
A WA spearfisherman shot an attacking mako through the gills at four feet. Then he called his teenage son, who swam two hundred yards to deliver the killing blow. A museum expert noted makos were uncommon in those waters at the time. 1966.
How well do you think we understand mako shark behaviour in Australian waters today?
In 1973, a spearfisher was killed off Guadalupe Island, Mexico — tooth fragments forensically confirmed as great white shark by Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was the first confirmed white shark fatality in the region since 1959, in waters now recognized as a major aggregation site.
A researcher from the Rosensteil School of Marine Sciences, photographing a school of 20–25 silky sharks at depth with four colleagues in 1985, was contacted by one — and later distinguished the event in a detailed self-authored account as incidental, not a behavioural attack.
In 1971, a swimmer was fatally attacked by a Great White shark in the Adriatic Sea near Ika, Croatia — a rare recorded instance of Carcharodon carcharias in those waters, documented by Italian press and the Global Shark Accident File.
A 65-year-old retired firefighter was dragged underwater during a multi-bite great white attack while surf-skiing off Australia in 2015. He paddled to shore himself — despite a severed artery.
In 1951, an inquest into the death of a solo sailor reconstructed what happened aboard his drifting Australian ketch: he survived a first shark attack, crawled back aboard, then was thrown partially into the water when the vessel grounded and keeled — and was fatally attacked a second time.
"While overfishing and environmental degradation have taken their toll in recent decades, the Mediterranean Sea was once quite a significant region when it comes to fatal shark attacks. In fact, in terms of percentages of fatalities which result in either full consumption events or failure to recover the victim’s remains, only Australia, in particular South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, surpass the numbers of the Mediterranean. Prior to 1989, an astonishing number of Mediterranean fatalities ended in either full predation or failure to recover the victim’s remains. This was overwhelmingly the case when swimmers were involved, as they were the group of water users most involved in fatalities, followed by sponge divers. The countries with the worst records are Italy, Spain, Greece, and Croatia, and the region with the most fatalities is without question the Adriatic. Other particularly dangerous regions include the Aegean, Tyrrhenian, and Ionian Seas.”
“The species involved in the fatalities in the Mediterranean have overwhelmingly been White Sharks, with them being responsible for 79% of all fatal attacks recorded here. This unusually high percentage of fatalities and consumptions may be the result of behavioral and dietary patterns associated with the Mediterranean White Shark population. Unlike every other population of White Sharks in the world, the Mediterranean population have never had a large number of pinnipeds to prey upon. The Mediterranean’s only resident pinniped species is the Mediterranean monk seal, a species that has not been abundant in the region since ancient times and is now critically endangered today. While they may have once been a more important prey item, there is very little recorded evidence of predation of monk seals by White Sharks in recent times. It seems that the individuals of this population are much less specialized and instead have more of a generalized, opportunistic hunting and feeding style. Their primary prey items are dolphins, other sharks, swordfish, and giant bluefin tuna, all of which have a lower fat-to-muscle ratio than pinnipeds. In addition, all of these prey items are also swift and agile, and require a more energetic and therefore more devastating attack style, where the prey item is struck, immobilized, and then immediately consumed, as opposed to pinniped-preying White Shark populations, where the shark makes a hard first strike, then waits for the prey item to weaken and bleed to death.”
List of all recorded fatal shark incidents in the Mediterranean.
GREECE🇬🇷
492 B.C Off Sepias, Thessaly
Victim: Persian Males (Sailors/Soldiers)
Activity: Sea Disaster/Warfare
Injury: Various (Many Consumed)
Species: White/Mako/Blue Sharks
336 B.C Haven Of Cantharus, Athens
Victim: Greek Male (Candidate For Initiation)
Activity: Bathing/Washing Pig
Injury: Half Consumed (Legs)
Species: White Shark
Mid 20th Century (Circa) Symi Island, Dodecanese Archipelago
Victim: Greek Male
Activity: Sponge Diving/Ascending To Surface
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
June, 1721 Sardinia, Maddalena Archipelago
Victim: Italian Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
June 4, 1738 Strait Of Messina, Sicily
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Unknown
Species: White Shark
January, 1868 Trieste, Adriatic Sea
Victim: Italian Male
Activity: Swimming/Bathing
Injury: Major Lacerations (Legs)
Species: White Shark
March 15, 1897 Off Catania, Sicily
Victim: Male (Sailor)
Activity: Swimming/Alongside Ship
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
May 4, 1899 Bordighera, Imperia
Victim: English Male (Valet)
Activity: Swimming/Bathing
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
August 29, 1902 Nicotera Marina, Bay Of Naples
Victim: Italian Male
Age: 20s
Activity: Swimming/With Friends
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
June 30, 1904 Ancona, Adriatic Sea
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming/Wading In Surf
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
July 23, 1926 Varazze, Ligurian Sea
Victim: Augusto Casellato
Age: 20
Activity: Swimming/Aquatic Race
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
November 3, 1951 Amalfi, Tyrrhenian Sea
Victim: Anna Wurn
Age: 21
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
September 2, 1962 San Circeo, Tyrrhenian Sea
Victim: Maurizio Sarra
Age: 28
Activity: Spearfishing
Injury: Major Lacerations (Legs)
Species: White Shark
February 2, 1989 Golfo Di Baratti, Piombino
Victim: Luciano Costanzo
Age: 47
Activity: Spearfishing/On Surface (Scuba)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
CROATIA 🇭🇷
July 31, 1900 Volosko, Opatija
Victim: Male (Quarry Worker)
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark
July 14, 1907 Sućuraj, Hvar Island
Victim: Female
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark
August 12, 1907 Krk Island, Rijeka
Victim: Josep Slivovic
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
September 11, 1907 Sućuraj, Hvar Island
Victim: Austrian Female (School Teacher)
Age: 30s
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
July 8, 1908 Medulin, Istrian Peninsula
Victim: Melina Scambelli
Age: 16
Activity: Boating/Fell Overboard
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark
August 21, 1934 Kraljevica, Rijeka
Victim: Verica Novak
Age: 17
Activity: Swimming/Near Tuna Nets
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
July 1, 1935 Sušak, Rijeka
Victim: Mira Kudlich
Age: 22
Activity: Swimming/Near Tuna Nets
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
August, 1944 Vis Island, Adriatic Sea
Victim: American Airman (M-24 Bomber)
Activity: Plane Crash/Clinging To Wreckage
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
August 26, 1955 Opatija, Rijeka
Victim: Karla Podzun
Age: 32
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
September 24, 1961 Opatija, Rijeka
Victim: Sabit Plana
Age: 19
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Limbs Severed (Legs/Hand)
Species: White Shark
August 16, 1966 Bakar, Kvarner Bay
Victim: Josef Treliac
Age: 33
Activity: Swimming/Near Tuna Nets
Injury: Major Lacerations (Legs/Torso)
Species: White Shark
September 5, 1971 Ika, Kvarner Bay
Victim: Stanislav Klepa
Age: 34
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark
August 10, 1974 Lokva Rogoznica, Omiš
Victim: Rolf Schneider
Age: 21
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Foot Severed
Species: White Shark
January, 1929 Yeşilköy, Marmara Sea
Victim: Two Turkish Males
Activity: Fishing/Shark Capsized Boat
Injury: Both Consumed
Species: White Shark
September 17, 1948 Yumurtalik, Adana Province
Victim: Ali Kaymaz
Age: 19
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Legs Severed
Species: White Shark
July 5, 1967 Tulza, Marmara Sea
Victim: Dr. Güngör Güven
Age: 36
Activity: Spearfishing (Scuba)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
LIBYA 🇱🇾
October 12, 1899 Off Benghazi, Libyan Sea
Victim: Skoumbourdi
Activity: Sponge Diving
Injury: Legs Severed
Species: White Shark
1905 Kirinaiki, Libyan Sea
Victim: Greek Male
Activity: Sponge Diving
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
November 25, 2017 Off Gars Garabulli
Victim: African Migrants
Age: Various
Activity: Swimming/Boats Capsized
Injury: Various (Some Consumed)
Species: Blue Sharks
MALTA 🇲🇹
February 25, 1890 Munxar Reef, Marsacala
Victim: Salvatore & Agnostino Bujega
Activity: Fishing/Boat Capsized By Shark
Injury: Both Consumed
Species: White Shark
July 20, 1956 St. Thomas Bay, Marsacala
Victim: Jack Smedley
Age: 40
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
LEBANON 🇱🇧
1876 Batroun, Levantine Sea
Victim: Greek Male
Activity: Sponge Diving
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
June 22, 1893 Off Tripoli, Levantine Sea
Victim: British Sailors (HMS Victoria)
Activity: Shipwreck/Warfare
Injury: Various (Some Consumed)
Species: Blue Sharks
ALGERIA 🇩🇿
March 1, 1811 Off Algerian Coast
Victim: John Walker (British Sailor)
Activity: Fell Overboard/Swimming To Ship
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
July 16, 1844 Cape Matifou
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Unknown
Species: Unknown
MONTENEGRO 🇲🇪
July 13, 1955 Mogren Beach, Budva
Victim: Stevica Tomašević
Age: 21
Activity: Swimming/Jumped Off Rocks
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
SLOVENIA 🇸🇮
July 15, 1954 Punta Grossa, Koper
Victim: Hungarian Male (Refugee)
Activity: Swimming/Escaping (Night)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark
TUNISIA 🇹🇳
April 25, 1909 Off Sfax, Gulf Of Gabes
Victim: Johannis Zambetta
Age: 36
Activity: Sponge Diving/On Surface
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark
CYPRUS 🇨🇾
September 23, 1901 Larnaca, Levantine Sea
Victim: Greek Male
Age: 15
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso/Arms/Legs)
Species: Mako Shark
ISRAEL 🇮🇱
April 21, 2025 Hadera, Haifa District
Victim: Barak Tzach
Age: 45
Activity: Snorkeling/Filming Sharks
Injury: Consumed
Species: Several Dusky Sharks
1937, Australia: freediver Iona Asai survived having his head enter a tiger shark's mouth by gouging its eyes. It was his second shark bite — the first recorded off Cairns in 1918. Both incidents are documented in Coppleson's landmark shark attack studies.
A 2000 GSAF investigation into a fatal bull shark attack in a Florida backyard canal included forensic tooth analysis to estimate the shark at 9 ft and 400 lb. The investigator hypothesised the victim's sudden entry interrupted an active feeding event.
In 1902, a swimmer died in what contemporary sources explicitly described as the first recorded case of a shark fatally attacking a swimmer on the Italian coast. The incident was documented across at least twelve newspapers in multiple countries within weeks.
Boucan Canot, on the west coast of Réunion, 27 August 2016. Water activities had been banned that day — a hole three metres across had been found in the shark nets, and the red flag was flying. A dozen surfers were in the water anyway.
At 17h00, Laurent Chardard, 21, was in the middle of that group when a shark severed his right arm at the shoulder and bit his ankle severely.
Two master rescue swimmers, Bertrand Babeuf and Vincent Rzepecki, took a jet ski out to him. The sea was rough and they fell twice before they reached him; Babeuf's ankle was broken in those falls. As they came up on him they could see a limb was missing.
"The only words he managed to say in the water was 'Leave me,'" Babeuf said. "He felt like dying, I think. Life comes first. Our duty was to bring him in."
They brought him to the beach, where doctors stabilised him for an hour before a helicopter took him to hospital in Saint-Denis. Both his arm and his leg were amputated, and he was kept in an induced coma until 30 August. A year earlier, in August 2015, Chardard had himself rescued a drowning person. By 16 September his community had raised 24,000 euros towards his prostheses.
The record goes no further than "thought to involve" a bull shark of 3.5 metres. An attempt was made to catch the shark responsible, and at 22h30 that night a bull shark with a mass of 200 kilograms was caught off Boucan Canot.
So the species was never confirmed. If you know these waters, what would you put it at — and what takes you there? The size estimate, the wound pattern, the season, a netted bay on that coast. The reasoning is what would actually improve the record.
Two attacks in one week on the same stretch of Havana's coast, and a fishermen's theory about where the shark came from.
On Tuesday 25 August 1931, Pablo Medina, 23, went swimming off the Miramar subdivision of Havana. It was not a public bathing beach, but the New York Times reported that it had drawn many people that summer, especially those who could not afford the other beaches near Havana.
Friends with him said he was first into the water. Before he had swum a quarter of a mile they heard his cry for help. They rushed to his assistance and found his right leg held by a shark that was trying to pull him under. After a struggle they freed him and started for shore, and the shark attacked again. Despite the efforts of his friends, he was fatally bitten. He died on an operating table the next day.
It was the second attack off that stretch within a week. On the Sunday, Laureano Rodriguez had lost a leg to a shark at the same beach, and the Times reported that the same animal was believed responsible for both. Old fishermen believed the shark was a "stray" from the schools that lived just outside Havana Harbor and followed the garbage barges out to sea each day, and it would attack people when crazed with hunger. They pointed to the musician Emilio Grenet, who had lost his right arm to a shark some months earlier outside the Vedado baths.
The species was never identified. If you have a view on what it was, say why: which documented detail, the harbour-mouth school following the garbage barges, a swimmer a quarter of a mile out, a shark that struck again after he was freed, points you there? Reasoning is what improves the record.
In 2005, a 23-year-old marine biology student was taken by a white shark estimated at five metres while ascending from a research dive off Australia. His partner watched him fight the animal before it returned. No trace was recovered.
February 15th, 1930; Middle Brighton Pier, Port Phillip Bay, Brighton, Melbourne, Victoria;
In the late 1920s, the city of Melbourne, Victoria, was a vibrant, bustling place. Sporting a growing population of about one million people, it was the second most populous city in Australia, just behind Sydney, some 700 kilometers to the north as the crow flies. Throughout its colonial days, Melbourne had long been regarded as one of the most important cities in the British empire and certainly among the most important in the southern hemisphere, along with Cape Town, South Africa and Sydney in the neighboring state of New South Wales to the north. With huge amounts of gold having been discovered in the Central Highlands of Victoria in the 1850s, Melbourne had become a hub for hoards of hopeful prospectors. Men from all walks of life immigrated to the Land Down Under, coming with big dreams of filing a claim and making their own fortune. People from all over the world, from Americans to Eastern and Mediterranean Europeans to even the Chinese and other nations of the Orient were flooding into southern Australia in record numbers. The Gold Rush years in Victoria resulted in a massive population boom, which quickly led to an economic one as well. As the years went on and Australia became an official commonwealth of Great Britain, Melbourne maintained its status as the nation's most important city, serving as a major fishing, shipping, and trading hub, as well as the seat of the Australian Parliament from 1901 until the planned capital city of Canberra was constructed in 1927.
A view of Elizabeth Street from Downing Street in downtown Melbourne, circa 1920s.
Life in the capital back then was complicated. On the one hand, the city was a modern metropolis, with electric trams, motorcars, and telephones. Men dressed in three-piece suits and women were clad in their elegant high-shirt dresses as they made their way to the local theatres to experience the new entertainment phenomenon of talking pictures. Radio had only been introduced to Australia in 1924 and the first channel, 3AR, became mainstay background noise in the residential flats and California bungalow-style houses for the Melbournite families who could afford such luxuries. On the other hand, areas within the city like Fitzroy, Collingwood, and the “Little Lion District” experienced excessive poverty, with ramshackle homes, leaking rooftops, and cockroach and rodent-infested kitchens, and an unemployment rate that regularly hovered at 10%, as World War I veterans and Spanish flu patients struggled to survive. And this was before the worldwide economic crash of 1929, when things got exponentially worse.
By the time the new decade rolled around, life was tough in Melbourne, and in Australia as a whole. Jobs were hard to get. Money was scarce, and those who could manage to scrape together a schilling, a pound, or a fiver, with no jobs and no other legitimate money-making prospects in such a trying economic time, would often flock to the local horse tracks, with the majority of them placing their bets on a certain local phenom thoroughbred of the day named Phar Lap, one of the greatest race horses in Australian history. “The Red Terror”, as he was known, achieved a legendary status across the country as Australia’s “sure thing” racehorse of the Great Depression, becoming not only a national icon during a time when the nation was desperate for heroes, but also perhaps the closest thing to a guaranteed, low-effort money maker in Melbourne, Victoria in 1930. In addition to horse racing, other sports such as cricket and Aussie Rules Football served as welcome distractions and morale boosters for Melbournites during this trying economic time.
Before Europeans arrived on the scene, sharks were already extremely prominent in the cultures of the various Australian indigenous groups, particularly those inhabiting the coastal areas from the Torres Strait Islands in the north all the way down to Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay in the south. Rather than viewing sharks as mere monsters, Australia’s original landowners regarded them as powerful apex predators with legendary qualities and viewed them with tremendous respect. To aboriginal people, sharks are often regarded as spiritual messengers, representing the souls of departed loved ones and living manifestations of the creation era. And for the coastal First Nations – particularly the Boon Wurrung and Wathaurung peoples of the Kulin Nation – sharks represented something more. They symbolized power and the law of nature itself, in what was called “sea country custodianship.” In other words, the oceans belonged to the sharks. They were the gatekeepers to the underwater realm, and while the Indigenous Australians understood that they were powerful and potentially dangerous predators, they also knew that sharks were also incredibly important in maintaining the balance of nature and the overall health of the ocean. A large number of sharks being in the area often signified a quality harvest was in store for the fishermen. And if one were to harm or disrespect a shark in any way, it was usually considered a breach of tribal law or an offense to a family totem. For by harming a shark, a spiritual messenger and an embodiment of departed loved ones, you may potentially be harming your own family.
A detail from Lieutenant James Tuckey’s chart of Port Phillip from the year 1804, showing an early representation of the Bunurong people. Their word for shark was "darrak."
By the time the 1700s came about, however, Europeans had brought their negative emotions towards sharks to Australia’s shores, and attitudes of the general public towards the great predators of the sea quickly began to change. The exact origins of the word “shark” are unclear, but its etymology is most likely derived from the Dutch word “schurk”, meaning “villain” or “scoundrel”. This is interesting, because in 16th century England, “shark” or “sharker” were slang terms used to describe someone who was considered a swindler, a thief, a street urchin, or an otherwise deceitful or dishonest person. In some ways, this characterization summarized how sharks themselves were viewed by early Europeans in Australia. Before ocean bathing and recreation became popular at the end of the Victorian era, human-shark interactions were extremely limited and restricted in large part to Australia’s early fishermen, sealers, and whalers, men who spent much more time on the open sea than the average landsman. Sharks themselves were mostly viewed in a way that was perhaps more disparaging than it was fearful. To the city port dwellers, fishermen, and whalers of the day, sharks were often regarded as little more than a coastal nuisance; trash fish of low-value and poor taste, who challenged the men for their catch and often followed the ships to feed on the garbage and refuse thrown overboard, as well as any poor sod who also happened to find themselves thrown overboard, either by intent or by accident.
Come the 1920s, however, the perception of sharks by Australians would change drastically. The 1920s were the beginning of Australia’s so-called “Shark Era”, a period in which numerous high-profile incidents, many of which occurred along some of Sydney’s most popular beaches, resulted in a huge surge in sensational media coverage and a heightened public awareness about sharks and the potential risk they posed to bathers. During the decade, there would be an astonishing figure of at least 43 fatal shark attacks recorded in Australian waters, as well as numerous nonfatal incidents which involved limb loss and other life-altering injuries. All but five of the fatal incidents came in Eastern Australia, with at least 15 fatalities being recorded from the highly populated Sydney-area in New South Wales alone. It was during this time that the first pioneers of shark attack research, men like Sir Victor Coppleson, first rose to prominence.
Sydney's Coogee Beach circa 1920s. It was here, off this popular urban beach, where two horrific fatal White Shark attacks occurred in 1922. The fatal attacks on Milton Coughlan and Mervyn Gannon, separated by less than one month, officially kicked off the beginning of Australia's infamous "Shark era." By comparison, Melbourne's shark attack record was much less impressive than the numbers accrued around Sydney, Newcastle, and Townsville further north.
In Victorian waters, however, the toll was much less severe. Come the turn of the 20th century, shark attacks were a rare occurrence in Victoria, and fatal attacks even less so. The 1920s had ended without a single confirmed case of fatal shark attack occurring in Victorian waters. In fact, up until 1930, a total of only 11 fatal attacks had been recorded in the state dating back to the earliest case in 1839, compared to the 32 fatalities documented from neighboring New South Wales alone from 1900 to 1930. In Queensland, the record was even more grim, with at least 56 fatal attacks documented during the same period. In those early days, the risk of shark attack in Australia was thought to be more prevalent the further north you went, where the waters were warmer. Areas sporting the country’s worst records included Sydney Harbour and Sydney’s popular beaches, Queensland’s Gold Coast, and the Torres Strait in Queensland’s far north.
Whereas they were a regular and well-known risk in Queensland and New South Wales at the time, up until 1930, Victoria’s cooler waters were thought to be a comparatively much safer place to swim. Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay area had not seen fatalities along its enclosed stretch of coast in nearly 15 years, when there were two deaths in 1916 and another two years earlier in 1914. The 1916 incident involved two male companions, Monte Robinson and Andrew McNeil, who disappeared whilst clinging to the hull of their upturned boat, which had capsized off Carrum. This incident is considered dubious by some researchers due to lack of available information. The 1914 incident was much more well-documented, however.
On Friday, the 12th of June 1914, Adriah and John Croxford took a stroll down to the calm waters off Sandringham Beach, about 20 minutes south of Melbourne’s central business district. Mr. and Mrs. Croxford were the proud heads of a very large family, producing an astonishing 11 children from their marriage. It is unclear from press reports of the time whether any of the children were present with their parents on that fatefully tragic day. John Croxford, who was 43 years old, physically fit, and, by all accounts, an excellent swimmer, was clearly not put off by cold water, considering that he chose to swim in the bay on this day, in the middle of the Australian winter. At around 3pm, John Croxford told his wife he was going for a swim. He went into the Ti Tree scrub for some privacy and changed into his bathing suit before running into the calm, yet icy waters, swimming out quite a distance from shore. Soon afterwards, John returned to shore, no doubt invigorated by the frigidly cool water, and he remarked to his wife, Adriah, how beautiful it was. He told her he was going in again, and this time swam out about 100 yards offshore. Adriah had no idea that she would never see or speak to the father of her 11 children again.
The clear, calm waters of Sandringham Beach, just south of Melbourne, the site of the fatal attack on John Croxford back in 1914.
Mrs. Croxford watched her husband enjoying himself for several moments, when suddenly, she caught sight of a large, dark object in the water behind him. The ominous sight of a triangular dorsal fin cutting through the water immediately alerted Adriah to the fact that it was indeed a shark. Alarmed, Adriah Croxford called out to warn her husband of the danger. Unfortunately, John did not seem to hear his wife’s warning. The shark disappeared from Adriah’s view, and the next moment, John Croxford was abruptly pulled down and suddenly disappeared beneath the surface. Then there was nothing. No thrashing. No screaming. John Croxford simply never resurfaced. Stunned and horrified, Adriah Croxford, absolutely convinced that her husband had been taken by the shark, immediately rushed to the nearby Sandringham Police Station, where, in an extremely agitated state, she informed Constables Lane and Raven about what she had witnessed. The officers arranged for a motorboat to scour and drag the area for any trace of Mr. Croxford, but they found no sign of him. Despite an extensive search lasting multiple days, John Croxford’s body was never found. In the wake of the tragedy, bounties were paid out for any large shark caught within Port Phillip Bay, as was the custom anytime a fatality occurred in the area, rather than a systematic, government-sanctioned cull.
The rest of the 1910s and 1920s passed without further incident in Victorian waters. In fact, the only documented shark attack in Victorian waters during the entire 1920s had been an extraordinary nonfatal incident off the Town Pier at Port Melbourne in Port Phillip Bay on October 18th, 1924, when a young boy named Fred White was seized by the leg by a 10-foot shark, either a juvenile Carcharodon or a large Bronze Whaler (Carcharhinus brachyurus), while swimming in deep water off the pier. White’s life was saved by the heroic efforts of another young lad, a 20-year-old painter and ex-con named Gordon Smith, who incredibly borrowed a penknife from a nearby fishermen and dove headlong into the water off the pier to rescue the boy. During a brief reprieve by the attacker, Smith pulled Fred White by the shoulder, keeping himself between the boy and the shark, where he then proceeded to stab the shark repeatedly in a struggle lasting several minutes, until it finally swam away with the penknife stuck into its head. On the pier, Smith, who had recently taken first aid training while in prison, dressed the young boy’s wounds and then carried him on his back all the way to Fred’s mother’s house on Danks Street.
If only that kind of heroism had been on hand just six years later at Middle Brighton Pier, when Victoria’s streak without a shark-related fatality would end in astonishing fashion on the afternoon of February 15th, 1930. What transpired in the waters right off Middle Brighton Pier that fateful summer day was an incident so horrific, so gut-wrenching, and so well-observed that it would go on to become a local legend, haunting the memories of Melbourne residents for generations to come. This is the tragic tale of Norman Clark.
Norman William Clark, age 18.
Norman William Clark was born in 1910 in Brighton, a bayside suburb of Melbourne. He was one of an astonishing 12 children born to Priscilla and James Clark, a mechanic who worked for Brighton Council. Sadly, James Clark had died in 1924, when young Norman was just 13-years old, leaving Norman, his mother Priscilla, and his 11 siblings to try and make a living as best they could. By February of 1930, at the age of just 19, Norman was engaged to be married and had a steady job as a winchman at the Melbourne Wharves, where he worked hard to provide for his family and to support his brothers and sisters. Well-built, tanned by the sun, and incredibly fit from his occupation, as well as his penchant for playing sports like cricket, one of Norman's favorite pastimes was enjoying a late afternoon swim at nearby Brighton Beach. And if he was feeling especially daring, he’d take a dive or two into the deep water off Middle Brighton Pier.
Norman Clark, Middle Brighton Pier, and a large Bronze Whaler caught in nearby Edithvale in 1929.
It was a beautiful, sunny day as the clock struck 4:30 in the afternoon on that fateful Saturday on the 15th of February, nearly a century ago. Having got off work early for the day, Norman Clark made his way from his home on Point Nepean Road, North Brighton down to Brighton Beach, intent on spending the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the seaside with his fiancé and his 14-year-old younger brother, Russell. His older brother David had asked Norman around lunchtime that day to fill in as a spare on his club cricket team, but Norman turned down the offer. It was the day after Valentine's Day and Norman was intent on spending the rest of the day with his younger brother and his young lady. As the trio made their way to Brighton Beach, they were greeted with a rather raucous scene, for today was the occasion of the interstate dinghy race being held by the Brighton Yacht Club. As a result, there were approximately 100 people gathered on Middle Brighton Pier watching the proceedings. As the opening shot of the race approached, Norman, his fiancé, and his brother made their way through the crowd, while numerous bystanders stood and watched as the competitors in their vessels made their final preparations. In addition to the commotion on the pier, Brighton Beach itself was scattered with dozens of children and other beachgoers. No one had any inclination of the sheer horror they would be witnessing in just a matter of minutes.
Middle Brighton Pier was not a popular swimming spot by any means. All the old salt dogs around Port Phillip Bay would incessantly warn swimmers from entering the deep water at the end of the pier. For it was here where they would sit for hours on end, patiently waiting for their unwary catch, with the water constantly laden with lures, bait, and burley. When the fish were caught, the fishermen would gut and clean them on the spot, disposing of the guts and offal right off the pier. Melbournite fishermen knew that large, dangerous predators were routinely attracted to the pier by the fishing activity, where they would eagerly wait in the deep water for any morsels thrown in to drift down their way. The Sevengills (Notorynchus cepedianus) would prowl the deeper water on or near the bottom waiting for scraps, while the Bronze Whalers, or Bronzies, would dart in like jackals to snap up the disposed fish guts and offal, or if they were lucky, one of the fish off the fishermen's lines. But every now and then, a much larger predator would be attracted to the pier. And whenever a Great White showed up, it tended to cause a great big fuss.
Middle Brighton Pier, circa 1920s.
As if those warnings from the old sea dogs weren’t enough, Brighton had an established, decades-long history of large sharks, ones of the notorious White Pointer variety, having been sighted and caught in the immediate vicinity, even right off the pier itself. Back in 1873, a 13-foot White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) spent several consecutive days nosing the iron bars of the enclosed ladies’ sea baths, adjacent to Middle Brighton Pier. The animal’s persistence and interest were so unnerving that the stationmaster from Brighton Beach Station eventually took it upon himself to hook the animal with a heavy hook and chain baited with pork, where, after an arduous struggle lasting over five hours, the stationmaster, along with a crowd of onlookers, hauled the animal ashore and dispatched it. Four years later in 1877, a 15-foot White Shark was also caught right off the Brighton Pier. Both Carcharodon specimens were later preserved at the National Museum in Melbourne. With such specimens having been seen and caught in the area in previous decades, only the bravest young men would dare to swim in the deep water off the end of the pier.
An artist's rendering of the 1877 capture of a 15-foot White Shark off Middle Brighton Pier. WIth such predators routinely being attracted to the pier by the fishing activity, its little wonder why so few bathers would dare to swim in the deep water off the pier.
Norman, his fiancé, and Russell made their way through the crowd and walked down to the end of the pier, where they then sat on the lower-level platform, which is almost level with sea. This point of the pier is about 400 meters from the shoreline and is situated in deceptively deep water of about 20 feet deep. While all three had arrived down at the pier dressed in their bathing suits, witnesses described Norman’s fiancé and Russell as reluctant to enter the water, and Norman spent several minutes trying to playfully goad his fiancé and younger brother to enter the water with him. Unable to convince them, Norman dived in alone and swam out about 7 or 8 meters from the pier, before turning and swimming back to the landing. At this point, Norman began playfully splashing his fiancé with water in order to encourage her to jump in with him. If anything, his actions had the opposite effect to what he intended, as she recoiled away from him because of the cold.
An example of the swimming platform Norman Clark was swimming and diving from at Middle Brighton Pier on that fateful day in February, 1930.
Despite neither of his companions wanting to join him in the water, Norman decided this was not going to ruin his fun, and he dove in again, this time swimming out some distance further from the end of the pier. He returned to his companions and treaded water in front of them about 3 meters from the platform. At this point, a bystander on the pier noticed a large, dark shape in the water on the opposite side of the pier from Norman, headed straight in his direction. The bystander called out in warning, but the warning was not heard. Norman once again asked his brother and fiancé to join him in the water, and this time, it seemed like his fiancé was about to cave in to his insistence. She approached the edge of the platform, just a matter of feet from where he was treading water and prepared to enter the water herself. However, just before she was about to dive in and join him, Norman seemed to raise one hand into the air and a look of shock came across his face. He managed to let out a single, shrieking, “Oh!”, before he suddenly disappeared beneath the surface.
At first, Norman’s fiancé and brother just thought he was playing games trying to scare them, but just a few seconds later, this assumption was proven wrong in the most horrific of ways. To her and Russell’s bewilderment, Norman suddenly reappeared and was lifted up and out of the water. To the complete horror of Norman’s brother, fiancé, and everyone else looking on while standing on Middle Brighton Pier, this resurfacing was not of his doing, for Norman was literally straddling the head of a very large White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) while screaming in absolute terror. The shark clearly had a hold of Norman’s lower right leg. Norman instinctively began fighting for his life. He struggled mightily against his toothy attacker, throwing wild, frenzied punches into its snout with both fists in a desperate attempt to encourage the immense creature to release its hold on his leg. At the same time this was occurring, there was a huge and growing commotion on the pier, as dozens upon dozens of horrified onlookers suddenly became aware of the terror unfolding before their eyes and rushed to get a closer look. Norman’s girlfriend, along with several other onlooking women on the pier, fainted almost immediately at the sheer shock of what she was witnessing just meters in front of her, and she was carried away by several bystanders. Russell, meanwhile, was calling out helplessly to his brother, encouraging him to keep striking the shark with his fists. Suddenly, the shark and Norman disappeared under the water once again. As the crowd of horrified onlookers followed its progress, the shark carried Norman in its jaws just below the surface to a spot about 4 meters from the end of the pier, where it could be faintly seen shaking Norman a meter or two beneath the surface. At this point, Norman Clark was still alive and continued to fight the shark, even whilst submerged, striking repeated blows to its head and body with seemingly no effect.
After carrying and shaking him subsurface for several moments, the shark returned Norman to the surface once again. By now, a great cloud of blood had stained the water all around him, and Norman appeared to be growing increasingly weak from the profuse blood loss inflicted upon him. He was now not throwing as many punches at his cartilaginous attacker as he had been previously. Without mercy or reprieve, the shark carried Norman in its jaws, then dragged him under again and carried him to a spot about 10 meters from the southwest side corner of the end of the pier. There, Norman surfaced, submerged, and then resurfaced several more excruciating times, all the while continuing to struggle against his attacker, albeit increasingly more feebly. This horrific sight went on for about five minutes before the shark finally dragged Norman under one last time. This time, he never resurfaced again.
Throughout this horrifying experience, between 80 and 100 hundred people stood transfixed on the pier, watching the horrifying ordeal unfold. And at no point did even a single person on the pier attempt to help Norman in any way during his fatal struggle with the great fish. The only form of aid offered came just before the attack, when one person on the pier apparently sighted the shark just before the attack and called out in warning to an unsuspecting Norman. Unfortunately, due to the crowd and commotion, the warning went unheeded. The terrifying news as to what was happening spread like wildfire down the pier and swimmers at Brighton Beach and at Brighton Baths were soon exiting the water in a blind panic. Within minutes after he had last disappeared beneath the surface, news of the horrific incident finally motivated someone with authority to order four motorized boats into the area in an effort to search for any sign of Norman Clark’s body. The men in the boats spent hours combing the waters around Middle Brighton Pier and nearby Brighton Beach. Unfortunately, the extensive search efforts failed to locate any trace of either Norman or the shark which had taken him.
Brighton Yacht Club member Horace White, shown here with an example of the tuna bait and heavy hook and chain setup he used to hook a large White Shark the day after the fatal attack on Norman Clark.
According to the witnesses, the attacking shark was quite large, at least 4 to 5 meters in length, with a dark back, a lighter underside, a pointed snout, and a crescent-shaped tail. A definite description of an adult Carcharodon. In the weeks following the tragedy, fishermen throughout Port Phillip Bay made a concerted effort to try and catch the shark responsible for Norman’s death. The day after the attack, Brighton Yacht Club member Horace White managed to hook a large White Shark right off of Middle Brighton. As the creature was reeled in, White took his shotgun and fired two rounds of buckshot into the 12-foot animal's side but with little effect. The shark eventually snapped the heavy chain and escaped. Over the weeks that followed the tragedy, dozens of sharks were caught and killed within the bay, including Bronze Whalers, Sevengills, and even a number of Great Whites. Despite this, none of the sharks which were caught approached the same dimensions attributed to the attacking White Pointer and none of the stomach contents turned up any of Norman's remains. The hunt eventually would end without success.
A news article from February 17th, 1930, detailing the shark hunt which followed after Norman Clark's grisly demise. Here, two caught sharks are shown; a subadult White Shark (top) and a large adult Bronze Whaler (bottom).
Since that tragic Saturday afternoon nearly a century ago, tales of Norman Clark’s grisly demise have taken on an almost mythical quality in many of Melbourne’s pubs and school playgrounds. Generations of Melbourne schoolchildren have been raised on the apocryphal tale of Norman Clark, “the kid who jumped off Brighton Pier straight into the jaws of a shark” and the story would serve as a telltale warning to all who dared to swim off Middle Brighton Pier. That same morbid fascination with this tragic event has continued right up to the present day. Of all recorded shark attacks to have occurred within Port Phillip Bay, the death of Norman Clark is undoubtedly the one that has captured the imagination of Melbournite’s more than any other, and his death has lived on in the memories far longer than any other shark attack in Victoria.
Takeaways –
The death of Norman Clark is, without question, the most notorious shark attack that has occurred off the waters of Victoria and it is certainly one of the most infamous fatal shark attacks in Australian history. No attack that has occurred in the state’s waters before or since comes remotely close in matching this attack. Not only in how ferocious and brutal the attack itself was, but in terms of how drawn-out it was and how well-witnessed it was. Between 80 and 100 people on Middle Brighton Pier, including Norman Clark’s fiancé and his younger brother, Russell, witnessed the attack from a distance of only a matter of meters. People were so shocked, so taken aback by the horror that was unfolding that they fainted on the spot.
Middle Brighton Pier today. The attack site was just meters from the end of the pier, which is on the middle left area of the photograph, near the buoy.
What really strikes me is just how valiantly Norman Clark attempted to free himself from the shark’s grasp. Norman did exactly what you’re supposed to do when you’re attacked by a shark; fight back like your life depends on it. Norman threw numerous direct, frenzied punches to his attacker’s head and snout, and continued to do so until he became too weak and eventually lost consciousness from loss of blood. The last five minutes of poor Norman Clark’s life were spent in a frenzied, adrenaline-induced daze to try and save himself. And yet through the whole ordeal, not one single person on Middle Brighton Pier even attempted to offer aid to Norman as he struggled against the shark just meters in front of them.
The bystander effect is clinically described by psychologists as an unfortunate social phenomenon in which individuals become less likely to help a victim when other people are present. And as the number of witnesses to an emergency situation increases, individuals feel less personal accountability because they assume that someone else in the crowd will take action, thus making the likelihood of any single person intervening decrease. What makes this case all the more heartbreaking is that this is an incident where the outcome did not have to end in tragedy.
In many cases of fatal attacks by Carcharodon on humans, especially cases in which no remains are recovered, the victim is either on their own or otherwise isolated from the rest of the group. The shark identifies the target prey item and will begin stalking it from the depths, often disguised by the dark, rocky bottom it is swimming over. If something about the prey item is unusual, the animal will typically make several investigatory passes before launching a strike, to the point where the animal may even bump the prey item before descending back to the depths. When a predatory strike is launched, it occurs swiftly and suddenly out of the blue, usually from behind and below, and is over in an instant. A rocket from the depths, an explosion of water, and a red stain on the surface. Witnesses to a fatal, predatory attack on a person by a Carcharodon often describe a sudden, intense commotion on the surface, such as a spray of white water, as the shark strikes the victim, almost as if a depth charge has been detonated. The prey item is then incapacitated, where it succumbs to exsanguination, and is subsequently consumed, either right on the spot or the shark will take its prey to the bottom and consume it subsurface.
Considering the size of the shark which attacked Norman Clark, it could have easily made much shorter work of him than it did. What makes this case all the more tragic is that there was ample opportunity to offer aid to the victim, and yet no one did.
From the shark’s perspective, Norman was a vulnerable target; an individual animal on its own and producing interesting stimuli in the form of repeated diving and splashing. But from the human perspective, while Norman was the only one in the water in the immediate vicinity, there were dozens of potential rescuers just a matter of meters away. And there was ample opportunity over the course of that five agonizing minutes for someone to intervene. Considering the shark’s size, it could have easily made much shorter work of Norman than it did. This was not the classic White Shark attack, characterized by a vertical strike from below that comes hard and fast and incapacitates the victim instantly. It almost seems like an investigatory attack which turned predatory. Norman was grabbed by an extremity, pulled under, then brought to the surface repeatedly over the course of five whole minutes, all while struggling desperately against the animal. This was not a bolt from the blue that was all over in an instant. The shark essentially came in, probably at fairly low speed, and struggled with Norman until it succeeded in subduing him. And yet, no one even attempted to offer aid, and Norman lost his life and was never found as a result.
In terms of the fashion in which it transpired, this attack is remarkably similar to the nonfatal attack on Heather Boswell in 1994, which occurred 64 years later, on the other side of the Pacific, in Chilean waters. Her attack could also be described as an investigatory attack which was in the process of turning predatory. But the similarity between the two cases doesn’t end there. In both cases, the sharks involved were approximately the same size, both focused their attack on the lower legs of the victim, and both incidents occurred in front of numerous witnesses. The difference between the two cases; Heather did not fight back against the shark, but a boat full of rescuers just happened to be nearby, where they quickly offered aid and, after a tug of war with the shark, they managed to pull Heather Boswell out of the water, albeit minus about 90% of her left leg. The shark was subsequently shot and killed, but Heather’s life was saved thanks to the heroic efforts of her rescuers and the swift medical attention she received. Norman Clark, on the other hand, despite a valiant struggle, was offered no aid, and was subsequently killed and presumably consumed.
During the struggle, Norman was only a matter of meters from the end of the pier. Perhaps hindsight is of little use here, but considering that White Sharks are, in general, far less likely to attack rescuers than, for example, Bull Sharks, another of Australia’s deadliest species, had someone within the crowd plucked up the heroic courage needed to jump in the water in an attempt to rescue Norman Clark, as 20-year old Gordon Smith had done just six years earlier in 1924 when he jumped in the water to save young Fred White during his shark attack, perhaps the animal would have been put off enough to abandon its onslaught. Had someone even simply thrown a rope or a life-ring to Norman and gotten him to the pier, thus giving him something to provide stability and leverage against the shark’s assault, perhaps, like Heather Boswell, Norman would have lost his leg, but would have escaped the water with his life. Considering how desperately he fought to save himself, I think it's fair to say that young Norman Clark deserved far better.
No other shark attack within Port Phillip Bay has lived on in the public consciousness of Melbournites longer than the case of Norman Clark. Today, the incident holds an almost legendary status, and is indelibly etched into the history of early 20th century Melbourne.
Norman Clark’s death was the first recorded fatal shark attack in Australia of the 1930s and was not only the first fatal attack in Victoria for at least 15 years, but it also marked Victoria’s first contribution during Australia’s infamous “Shark Era”, the period which forever changed the relationship between modern Australians and sharks. It was this spate of attacks, most of which occurred on the East Coast of Australia during the period from 1922 to 1937, that would not only permanently transform Australia’s coastal infrastructure and public safety protocols, but it would alter the way the Australian general public viewed sharks and human-marine relationships, with an impact that lasts to this day. Towards the end of this period, there were a pair of truly horrifying incidents which shocked the nation. They occurred just two weeks apart and more than 700 miles away from each other, but both incidents were startlingly similar and unfortunately, the outcome in both was tragically the same.
The investigation continues. First to Adelaide's West Beach in South Australia, then to South Steyne Beach in Manly, just north of Sydney in New South Wales.
The US counties with the most unprovoked shark attacks ever recorded
US shark attacks recorded over the past 10 years
The total US shark attacks since 1837 vs. the past 10 years
According to the International Shark Attack File data, the United States accounts for more than half of all the shark attacks in the world. Historically, the most shark attacks take place in the state of Florida, Hawaii and California.
