Beaches closed and a community in mourning after fatal Byron shark attack
Beaches at Byron Bay in northern NSW will remain closed this morning following a deadly shark attack.
A white pointer mauled 50-year-old British expat Paul Wilcox yesterday as his wife waited for him on the shore.
Wilcox had been swimming between the Pass and Main Beach at Byron Bay when he was bitten.
Newcastle paddleboarder Mark Hickey spotted him in trouble, just beyond the sandbar.
"I thought it was a turtle and then I looked closer and there was a lot of blood in the water, there was a shark circling and I recognised that it was a person," Mr Hickey told 7News.
Ignoring the threat, he ran out to chest-deep water and dragged Paul back to the beach.
"We then tried to give him CPR and mouth-to-mouth for about 20 minutes, Hickey said.
Paddleboarder Mark Hickey was praised by police after he dragged Paul Wilcox's body from the water. Photo: 7News
"He'd been attacked in the leg and had obviously bled to death in the water."
Locals gathered on the shore, and did their best to comfort the his distressed wife Victoria.
The British expats had only recently moved from Sydney to live in the beachside community.
The great white attack was witnessed by dozens of people on the beach, and in the water.
First on 7News: The Seven chopper captures this shot of a shark off Byron Bay following the fatal attack.
"It was pretty traumatic I was pretty rattled, pretty lucky it wasn't me," a surfer told 7News.
Beaches remain closed from Belongil to Tallows - more than 10 kilometres of coastline.
"It's horrific of course it's horrific," another beachgoer said.
"It's a real shame for Byron Bay because it means for quite a few weeks we're all really scared."
The huge great white was followed by the 7News chopper in the hours following the attack.
Lifesavers tracked it, and worked on pushing it away from the shoreline.
"If it is a great white it is a protected shark and that's why we need to follow our procedures," Inspector Bobbie Cullen said on Tuesday.
The patrol season and school holidays start next week.
Mother mourns shark attack victim
Paul Wilcox's mother says her son died doing something he loved.
Mr Wilcox's parents Marie and Bryan, who live in north Wales, said they spoke to their son shortly before he went on his regular morning swim.
The mother of a man killed by a shark at Byron Bay says he died doing what he loved, and she's grateful he had a quick death. Photo: Courtesy of the ABC
"I absolutely adored him and I want people to know that," his mother told the BBC.
She said it was a blessing that he'd had a quick death.
"He died doing what he wanted to do ... it's not as though somebody attacked him in the street. It's not as though he was shot in Afghanistan, which mothers have had to go through.
"I had a happy, well-adjusted, lovely, lovely son talking to me the day before - 24 hours later he's dead and I still can't take it in."
Mr Wilcox left Britain more than 20 years ago and lived in Sydney for a time but had only just moved to Byron Bay, media reports said.
