A month after Geraldton surfer Mel Ismail lost his lower right leg after being mauled by a shark, authorities have confirmed the size and species of the apex predator that attacked him.
Analysis by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development found that the shark at the centre of the Glenfield Beach attack on September 14 was a 3m-long great white shark.
Mr Ismail, a career firefighter, was attacked while on a solo surf at Glenfield Beach. He lost part of his leg, and was brought to shore and given first aid by first responder bystanders.
Since the attack, DPIRD has tested Mr Ismail’s wetsuit and surfboard to determine the species involved.
On Tuesday, a DPIRD spokesperson confirmed that the shark involved in the attack was about a 3m-long great white shark.
“DPIRD research scientists have examined evidence from the recent shark incident at Glenfield Beach in the City of Greater Geraldton and determined a white shark, estimated at approximately three metres, was involved,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Ismail is recovering at home since been discharged from Geraldton Health Campus, where he was one of the first patients to recover using the new intensive care ward.
Last week he told the ABC he noticed a pod of about 20 dolphins before something grabbed him and dragged him down.
“And I knew it was a shark,” he said.
“I got to a point where I saw its eye … a big black eye. But it’s winking back at me — I was trying to get my fingers in its eye and just pushing its eye as I was being dragged.
“I personally reckon it gave me the wink, and then shut my leg off, and I knew it had taken my leg.”
Shark attacks in Geraldton and Mid West waters are rare — the last fatal attack off the Mid West was in March 2005 when a 6m shark killed Geoffrey Brazier, 26, at the Abrolhos Islands.
More recently, surfer Max Marsden, then 30, survived after punching a 1.5m bronze whaler after it latched onto his arm while he was surfing at Lucy’s Beach near Greenough in April 2023.
Then in December, 2024: James Sweetman, then 12, was bitten on the leg by a one-metre shark during a surfing lesson at Greenough River Mouth Beach in Cape Burney.