Windsurfer `victim' Of Man-eater Shark

Newcastle Herald

Monday May 31, 1999

AAP

A YOUNG windsurfer killed by a shark off South Australia's Yorke Peninsula may have been the victim of a man-eating white pointer.

A shredded wetsuit, scratched sailboard and torn harness provided clues to the fate of the 22-year-old North Adelaide man, who went missing on Saturday while windsurfing in Hardwicke Bay, on the peninsula's west coast.

`There's no doubt he was taken by a shark,' said police spokesman Sergeant Steve Williams.

`(Police) don't hold out any hope that they'll find him or even part of his body.'

A fisherman said yesterday that white pointers, or great whites, were seen regularly in Hardwicke Bay.

South Australian waters are famous for sightings of the white pointer, the most ferocious of the shark family and now a protected species in Australia.

Authorities called off the search for the sailboarder yesterday.

Sgt Williams said the windsurfer's mother had been told of his death but did not want his name made public for at least another 24 hours.

Fisherman Harry Keightley, 80, said every summer great whites were seen in Hardwicke Bay.

`They sometimes pop up and give the boats a nudge,' he said.