A surfer fatally mauled in a shark attack on Sydney’s Northern Beaches had spotted the predator and warned others to get out before he was grabbed in a horrific incident.
Mercury Psillakis, 57, was killed a day before Father’s Day while enjoying his routine surf at Long Reef Beach near his home.
Psillakis, who leaves behind his wife and young daughter, is believed to have been attacked by a 3.4 to 3.6 metre-long great white shark about 100 metres from the shore.
A surfer and friend, Toby Martin, told the ABC that Psillakis was “stoic and heroic to the end”.
Martin described the horror attack as “really dramatic and quite graphic for those surfers who were in the water”.
“Merc spotted the shark early, informed the other surfers in the water to band together and to try and get back to shore safely,” he said.
“In that process, unfortunately making his way back into the surf, the shark beelined for the back of Merc and severed his legs quite severely.
“Self preservation wasn’t there — just the safety of the others was important for him,” he said.
He said Psillakis’s body was found floating in the water and was missing “a number of limbs”.
Martin said the businessman’s tragic death was a “deep loss”.
“[He] was just doing what he wanted to do, in a place where he loved doing it.”
Longy Boardriders Club said: “Mercury was loved by everyone”.
“This is something that will have such a massive effect on our community and the wider community.”
His death prompted the state government to pause plans to remove shark nets from some beaches until a report into Saturday’s attack is complete.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said it was a tragic incident but added that fatal shark attacks were rare in Sydney, with just two in 60 years.
“We’re all full of sorrow for the family,” he said.
“I understand he was a very experienced surfer and a long-standing member of the surfing community in Dee Why.
“They’d be reeling right now.”
Shark nets were installed at 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong at the start of September, as they are for each summer.
Three councils, including Northern Beaches Council, had been asked to nominate a beach where nets could be removed as part of a trial, but no decision on the locations had been made.
A decision on proceeding will not be made until after the Department of Primary Industries reported back on Saturday’s fatal shark attack, the premier said.
The state’s shark management plan also involves the use of drones to patrol beaches and smart drumlines to provide real-time alerts about sharks nearby.
Long Reef Beach uses drumlines but does not have a shark net, while nearby Dee Why Beach is netted.
Two extra drumlines were deployed between Dee Why and Long Reef after the incident, while both beaches remained closed on Sunday.
Shark expert Daryl McPhee said attacks were rare in Australia and the number had remained stable across the decades.
He said removing nets at beaches was unlikely to see the number of interactions between people and sharks increase.
“The available information demonstrates that large sharks are rarely present on surf beaches in Queensland and NSW,” the Bond University associate professor told AAP.
Before Saturday’s attack, the last shark-related fatality in Sydney occurred in February 2022, when British diving instructor Simon Nellist was taken by a great white off Little Bay in the city’s east.
-with AAP
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