A surfer who went missing off the coast of South Australia is believed to have died in a shark attack, authorities have said.
Lance Appleby, 28, was in the sea at popular surfing site Granites beach, near the coastal town of Streaky Bay, on Thursday evening when witnesses reported seeing him being attacked.
One witness went into the sea on a jet ski to retrieve the surfboard Mr Appleby was using at the time, but there was no sign of him, senior constable Rebecca Stokes told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“There was just no sign of this young man, there’s just been no sign of him,” she told ABC. “From witnesses’ descriptions, we’re pretty confident that sadly he’s been killed by this shark.”
South Australia Police said an air, land and water search would continue on 3 January to try and locate Mr Appleby’s body.
Mr Appleby, from Port Lincoln, was a local in the Streaky Bay community, Sky News Australia reported.
Assistant police commissioner John De Candia told reporters the attack was “absolutely tragic” and has had a wide impact on “lots of people”.
Another man was killed by a white shark on the same beach in 2023. Ms Stokes said the area is known to be frequented by sharks, and the beach remains closed to the public.
Dr Brianna Le Busque, a shark researcher from the University of South Australia, told Sky News Australia Mr Appleby was likely attacked by a great white shark as the species is more active in summer.
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“There’s more people in the ocean in summer, so it is more likely that there are unfortunate bites that occur during the summer months,” Ms Le Busque said.
The state of South Australia has registered more shark attacks in the past two years than usual.
There were five attacks off the state’s coast in 2023, three of them fatal and one at the same beach as Thursday’s incident. In 2024 there was one non-fatal shark bite off South Australia’s coast.
