The heartbroken family of a missing surfer attacked by shark have broken their silence amid fears his body may never be found.
Steven Payne, 37, was five weeks into a six-month trip around with his girlfriend and their dog when they stopped for a surf at Wharton Beach on Western ‘s south coast on Monday.
The New Zealand man was surfing in waist-deep water 50 metres from shore when beachgoers heard screams.
Mr Payne was seen to be in distress following earlier reports of a shark in the vicinity of the remote beach 60km east of Esperance.
His distraught girlfriend along with other shocked beachgoers watched the tragic scene unfold, before Mr Payne’s surfboard was discovered floating nearby with evidence of bite marks.
‘There was only a surfboard left floating around about 30m from the shore,’ a bystander told Nine News.
‘The water next to it was dark, with a shark’s fin circling around.’
His brother Matt told ABC the family doesn’t believe Mr Payne’s remains will ever be found.
Authorities arrived at the remote beach at 12.10pm on Monday, before closing the beach to commence a search.
Police are expected to call off the search within hours.
‘I don’t think there’s much point in utilising all the resources that we have at the moment too much longer,’ Senior Sergeant Christopher Taylor said on Tuesday.
‘There’s only so much of the bay you can keep searching over and over.
‘At the moment, we’ve not recovered anything so I’ll probably discuss it with the experts.
The rescue operation soon became a recovery mission after a member of the public shared drone footage of Mr Payne being attacked by the shark with police.
‘It (the drone footage)shows a lot of blood, the shark and some other things in there I don’t particularly want to go into and I don’t think anybody else needs to see other than maybe the coroner and some other experts who will determine the type of shark and size,’ Senior Sergeant Taylor said.
He added that Mr Payne’s girlfriend was ‘distraught’.
‘Her life was turned upside down,’ Senior Sergeant Taylor said.
‘You can imagine how she is, it’s just horrible.
‘It is heartbreaking obviously and the whole community of Esperance feels the pain — not as much as the family, they’re distraught and trying to come to terms with what happened.’
Mr Payne’s family is believed to be on their way to WA.
The beach is expected to reopened to the public on Wednesday.
Witnesses described seeing a ‘massive shark’ launching itself at the surfer in chest-deep waters some 50 metres from shore.
An unidentified species of shark was detected off the Wharton Beach shoreline within minutes of the attack on monitoring website SharkSmart.
The same stretch of the Esperance coastline, a favourite haunt for snorkellers and surfers, has recorded three fatal shark attacks in eight years.
In 2017, 17-year-old surfer Laeticia Brouwer died after being bitten by a white shark at nearby Kelp Beds.
Surfer Andrew Sharpe, 52, was surfing with seven friends at Kelp Beds in 2020 when a shark bit his leg.
He was soon pulled under by the shark before he could be rescued.
Earlier that year, diver Gary Johnson was killed while diving with his wife off Devil Rocks, Esperance.
Esperance Shire President Ron Chambers told ABC Radio Perth each new attack brings with it the painful memory of many others.
‘The community’s been here before, they’ll wrap around each other and make sure they take care of each other,’ said Mr Chambers.
‘We’ve got absolutely fantastic beaches, and we get a lot of people down here who visit them.
‘It is really sad that something like this has happened on that particular beach.’