A surfer named Lee was bitten twice by a suspected bronze whaler shark while riding waves at “The Sewer” in D’Estrees Bay, Kangaroo Island, on Tuesday. The attack occurred as the shark pursued a seal that had swum near the surfers apparently using them as a decoy. Lee sustained a “fairly deep laceration” to his calf, but thanks to the presence of a fellow surfer who happened to be a doctor, he was stabilized on the beach and driven to Kingscote Hospital, where he is now recovering well.
Jon Souter and his family were walking along the remote clifftops of Kangaroo Island “pretty much no land between you and Antarctica,” he said when they spotted the commotion below. With no other people in sight for hours, the sudden appearance of two surfers and a thrashing shark felt surreal. Souter began filming the scene, capturing footage that later circulated widely online. “I saw the tail thrash out… that’s when I realized the shark was right next to the surfers,” he recalled.
Souter’s family met the surfers as they exited the water. Lee was “more worried about his surfboard” than his injury, Souter said. Using a first aid kit they happened to carry, and with guidance from the doctor-surfer, they bandaged Lee’s leg. “There was still a fair bit of blood, but the doctor wasn’t too concerned about a major artery,” Souter explained. His daughter and niece helped retrieve flippers and boards while the group kept Lee calm with water and reassurance before he was driven to hospital.
By Wednesday morning, Lee was sipping a flat white and in good spirits, according to his employer Craig Wickham. Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly called it a “lucky escape,” noting the remoteness of the location could have turned the incident far worse. The shark left clear bite marks on Lee’s board a chilling souvenir of the encounter.
After helping Lee, Souter’s family resumed their day as if nothing had happened picnicking on the cliffs and stopping for honey ice-cream, a local specialty. “It all went smoothly in the end,” Souter said. In nearly 50 years of visiting Kangaroo Island, he’d “pretty much never seen a shark.” This time, fate and timing placed them at the edge of a rare, raw moment where wilderness, chance, and human kindness intersected.
The incident underscores both the beauty and peril of Australia’s wild coastlines places where seals, sharks, and surfers share the same waves. Yet what lingers isn’t the fear, but the calm competence of strangers who stepped in without hesitation. In a world where headlines often amplify chaos, this story offers something quieter, truer: preparedness, presence, and the simple wisdom of never surfing alone. Sometimes, The Ocean Tests You And The Right People Are Already On The Shore.
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