Surfer bitten in Sydney shark attack

The shark that bit Paul Welsh on Sydney's northern beaches has been identified by a tooth fragment as a 1.6 metre wobbegong, or carpet shark.

The normally docile shark species, which are bottom dwellers, may have been just as traumatised by the ordeal.

NSW Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan said: ‘‘It is quite possible the man stood on or spooked the shark. This shark is not aggressive and is not known to attack humans.’’

Mr Welsh, 46, was in about a metre of water at Basin Bay, just north of Mona Vale Beach, when the shark nipped him on his left leg about 8am.

He made it out of the water and his wife drove him to Mona Vale Hospital, where he was released at midday, a NSW Health spokesman said.

Mr Welsh has signed an exclusive deal with Channel Nine, a NSW Health spokeswoman said.

Earlier Mr Welsh told The Manly Daily he believed the shark was a two-metre great white but police said he did not see the shark.

"I was pushing my son on to waves and it just belted [me]," Mr Welsh told the paper.

"I grabbed on to the pinnacle of a rock and held on as it tried to drag me out ... and I won."

Surfwatch Australia director Michael Brown was in the water swimming with his teenage son when the attack occurred.

"We were just having a bit of a swim and all of a sudden we looked sideways and there was all this thrashing going on in the water," Mr Brown said.

"I could see a guy, he was out there just having a bit of a surf and it looks like a great white has come in underneath him, shot straight up, hit him like a freight train, knocked him up out of the water.

"He’s obviously freaked out. He reckons it was the biggest impact he’d ever felt in his life.

"Luckily for him he’s had the chance to grab hold of a rock and while he's hanging on to the rock the shark’s still latched on to his leg trying to drag him back out to sea. It was unbelievable.

"And then finally after what seemed like minutes, which was obviously only seconds, the shark's let go and he’s crawled over the rocks, blood just pouring down his leg, and you can see a distinctive bite mark.

"I saw a bit of the tail, which looked like a [great] white," he said.

"I'm more drawing my conclusion on the fact that whites have a very specific hunting technique, that is that they come in under their victim and then they shoot straight up vertically and then really smash in to them to try and sort of stun them and that’s what the shark’s done this morning.

"So everything about the way this attack has taken place indicates that it is probably a juvenile great white or adolescent great white."

The beach was closed this morning following the attack, Mona Vale Surf Life Saving Club president John Dibbs said. 

A water police boat and inflatable boat were out doing laps to try to find the shark. The water was very clear, Mr Dibbs said.

"I've been there 30 years and I think we've cleared the beach for shark alarms three or four times," he said.

"And sometimes it's a dolphin."

In February last year, navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder lost a hand and a leg and was lucky to survive after being mauled by a 2.7-metre bull shark in Sydney Harbour.

Just a day later, 33-year-old surfer Glenn Orgias was attacked at Bondi Beach by a 2.5-metre great white that shook him and nearly severed his left hand.

- with AAP

- © Fairfax NZ News