Cooper Allen speaks out about mates' bravery in shark attack
Ballina teenager Cooper Allen is a typical laid-back surfer who’s had a serious chunk taken out of his HSC preparation time.
He is the latest victim of a shark attack on Australia’s most notorious stretch of coastline
"I was sitting on my board for maybe a second and then just a big grab on my leg,
everything is just going through your head you know, I just remember thinking you know am I going to bleed to death? Am I going to die?"
"It was just sunny it seemed like a perfect day I guess, you couldn't complain."
About forty minutes into the surf... a four metre great white lunged at Cooper.
On Monday, September 26th, at around eight am Cooper set off for the first of his usual two or three daily surfs.
He paddled out, closely followed by his mates Tom and Jae...
About forty minutes into the surf... a great white lunged at Cooper.
"I felt the power of this thing."
"Just sort of pressure and then I fell of my board and I see a fin cutting across and I thought this is a shark. I’ve just been attacked by a shark."
His mates Tom, 15, and Jae, 14, were either side of Cooper.
"I turned straight away to … Tom and Jay and their faces were horror."
Seeing the shark circling Cooper, they made a split second decision to paddle to Cooper’s aid.
"Honestly I would not have seen anything else in this world other than that leg rope I reckon and there could have been fifty sharks around, I would not have noticed them, my goal was that leg rope."
The shark’s teeth ripped a series of deep gashes along Cooper’s thigh. They missed his major arteries by just centimetres.
"I wasn't feeling the pain of a bite, I could just been bumped you know, I was trying to tell myself that "you have just been bumped" and then looked down, I am bit and it just felt kind of weak."
"You can see why they say it’s a stealth predator I mean I had no clue it was anywhere near me"
His mates used a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and helped Cooper catch a wave to shore, catching glimpses of the predator the whole time.
"I’ve I mean I have thought about shark attack before, what is going to happen if I get attacked by a shark and it is nothing like how I imagined it."
In the ambulance on his way to hospital Cooper had a serious question for the paramedic.
"I said, 'Do you reckon this will get me out of the HSC?'"
"And she just laughed but I remember that was a serious you know, I was genuinely curious to know if I could get out of the HSC."
While more wary, Cooper is keen to get back in the water.
"I want to get back in the water, I know... The water is just where I like to be I guess."
"I think I might just swim in a pool to get strength and stuff and I want to surf again, I don't know if …as soon as those stitches are out I am going to be running down on all fours straight out there, I wouldn't say that, no way."
"I do plan at this stage to get on a board again, yes."
But for Cooper's mum Marika, it was a fear she had been dreading.
"When I used to drop him at the beach at times knowing that he was doing what he loved but there was always a risk and there's a lot higher risk in this area than a lot of other places just made sure I gave him a kiss said I love you and have fun.
"I would talk to Cooper about the risks."
Far northern New South Wales is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous stretches of coast anywhere in the country, matched only by Western Australia.
Over the past two years, there have been 14 shark attacks in the region and four attacks along a one-kilometer hot spot.
When Marika heard the news, she feared the worst but was 2000km away in Western Australia.
"I actually read it was a news stream and the words were 17 year old attacked by shark lighthouse beach Ballina and knowing Cooper and how regularly he goes to and from here I thought straight away. If that’s not cooper it will be someone he knows
The question everyone is asking is what has triggered so many attacks.
"You've just got an abundance of marine life so 20,000 humpback whales coming past every winter, summer time we're having all kinds of tropical species come down from the north, you know there's really healthy dolphin populations and a lot of fish life, so historically, this is a 'sharky' area," Dr Danny Boucher said.
In the past 18 months large schools of bait fish have swum close in to shore, bringing with them hungry sharks.
"There's sharks in the water with us every day whether we know it or not. We only hear about the attacks."
The attack on Cooper immediately sparked demands that something be done to keep surfers and swimmers safe, especially as the summer tourist season approaches.
For some locals like Don Munro, who’s surfed in this area for four decades, the answer is urgent, cull sharks.
"We have a young fella who was badly mauled by one so it has then reignited that whole fear, frustration, anger um about the whole situation you know, we deem that we are being, it's like they are playing Russian Roulette with our lives."
But the latest strategy is a bit less extreme — the installation of 100 drum lines, or big fishing lines.
Hooked sharks are tagged and taken out to sea, away from populated beaches.
So far nearly 40 great whites have been caught, tagged and relocated and if they return the tags set off an alarm alerting authorities.
The NSW Department of Primary Industry is tagging sharks along the beaches of northern NSW. They hope to have 100 bull and great white sharks tagged soon.
You can track them on this app.
The Ripper Group is hoping to roll out drones on beaches around Australia to warn surfers and swimmers of sharks in their midst.
Check them out on their website here
Sunday Night thanks Jayden Morrison, the young Ballina filmmaker who filmed much of our surfing and recovery vision of shark attack victim Cooper Allen.
Find out more about his work here
Thanks also to freediving cameraman Scott Wilson who has dived and filmed with sharks on the NSW North Coast and in the Pacific:
Check him out here.
Byron Bay photographer, Matt Draper, is catching beautiful portraits of sharks around the world:
Follow him on Facebook here
