A teenage lady died after she was attacked by a shark whereas swimming in a river in Western Australia on Saturday afternoon, the police stated.
The lady, 16, was pulled from the Swan River, about 10 miles southwest of central Perth, with “vital accidents,” in keeping with the Western Australia Police Pressure, which responded to the assault.
The lady, who was not named by the police, had been Jet Snowboarding with pals when she probably jumped into the water to swim with a pod of dolphins, Inspector Paul Robinson of the Fremantle District of the Western Australia Police Pressure stated at a information convention.
He stated that the lady had died on the scene from her accidents however didn’t specify what these accidents have been. “It’s a particularly traumatic occasion for everybody concerned,” Inspector Robinson added. “It’s uncommon for a shark to be that far down the river.”
The headmaster of Scotch Faculty, a personal boys’ faculty in Perth, recognized the lady as Stella Berry, the daughter of a employees member. Two boys of the varsity, pals of Stella, have been the primary respondents, Dr. Alec J. O’Connell, the headmaster, wrote in a letter to the Scotch neighborhood.
After the US, Australia has the second-highest recorded incidence of unprovoked shark assaults, in keeping with information from the International Shark Attack File. In 2021, there have been 12 assaults throughout Australia, and three of these have been deadly. Encounters in rivers are particularly uncommon, an knowledgeable stated.
Johan Gustafson, a shark ecologist at Griffith College in Queensland, stated that whereas sharks are sometimes “hanging round” to feed on fish, the possibilities of being bitten by a shark, particularly in a river, are very slim.
“This will have simply been a type of mistaken identification eventualities,” Dr. Gustafson added. He famous that swimming or browsing throughout the day, and outdoors of feeding hours, have been the most effective methods to cut back any danger.
Six different shark assaults, one in every of them deadly, have been recorded within the Swan River, in keeping with the Australian Shark Incident Database. The most recent attack was in 2021, when a person in his 50s was bitten on a leg by a two- to three-meter bull shark, a species that may enter estuaries and freshwater river techniques.
Whereas the authorities have but to find out what sort of shark was concerned in Saturday’s assault, the state’s fisheries minister, Don Punch, stated at a information convention that the animal might have been a bull shark.
Extra safety measures to guard swimmers from sharks within the area may very well be thought of, Mr. Punch added. He stated that the close by seaside had been closed following the assault and that the river was being patrolled.
“It’s not doable, successfully, to shut the river,” Mr. Punch stated, “once we know that shark may very well be anyplace.”
