An Australian school teacher is feared dead after wetsuit material and a surfboard were found following a shark attack.
Simon Baccanello, 46, was surfing at Walkers Rock Beach on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia with about a dozen others on Saturday morning when he was attacked. No one else was injured.
“I saw his board tombstoning, which means he’s underwater and his board’s getting dragged under … trying to fight his way back to the surface,” Jaiden Millar, who witnessed the attack, told Adelaide Now.
Search efforts commenced immediately. Early Monday, parts of a ripped-up wetsuit and small pieces of surfboard were found. Police said Baccanello was presumed dead after the attack.
The surfboard parts had bite marks, according to 9 News. A large Great White shark has also recently been spotted in the area.
Police said the search would continue after high tide as any other evidence or human remains would likely drift back to shore.
Baccanello is a teacher at Elliston Area School, with grades between pre-K and year 12.
According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, there were 20 encounters with sharks last year, resulting in 14 injuries and one death, but only one incident that did not involve an injury occurred off South Australia.
The attack follows a 16-year-old Australian being killed in a rare shark attack after jumping from a jet ski to swim with dolphins in the Swan River in Perth. Another surfer was killed at a Sydney beach in February 2022 — the first fatal shark attack in the city since 1963.
Americans have recently been attacked or killed by sharks, too. A 58-year-old man was bitten by a tiger shark while surfing in Honolulu. A Washington woman was killed in Maui County last December while snorkeling.