The victim of a fatal shark attack on South ‘s Eyre Peninsula has been identified as 28-year-old Lance Appleby – as a fisherman’s grim warning just hours before the surfer was mauled is revealed.
The experienced surfer was attacked at Granites Beach just after 7pm on Thursday.
Emergency services rushed to the beach, about 700km from Adelaide, after receiving reports of a shark attack.
A air, land and sea search for Mr Appleby, who was home visiting his family for Christmas, is yet to locate his body.
The beach has been closed to the public who have been urged to stay away.
Mr Appleby’s disappearance comes after a local fisherman said he spotted an ‘aggressive’ great white shark in the area.
‘Large great white sighted acting aggressively near granites, Streaky Bay,’ he wrote on a South n West Coast shark alert Facebook page.
The attack comes after Tod Gendle, 55, was killed by a four-metre great white shark while surfing at the same beach in October, 2023.
Fellow surfer Jeff Schmucker, who raced out on a jet ski to try to save him, said he saw Tod getting pulled underwater by the huge shark.
Mr Schmucker said he was attacked and circled several times by a ‘big female’ shark.
He did not see any remains of the 55-year-old’s body but told 7News he was able to retrieve part of his surfboard which had a large bitemark taken out of it.
Locals said Tod had only moved to the area a short time ago and was not familiar with the surfing spot, which is known as a great white shark breeding ground.