Thread: .Family believes swimmer taken by shark17:51 AEST Tue Oct 11 2011

The family of a Perth businessman who disappeared on his regular morning swim accept he was probably killed by a great white shark, after his torn bathers were found on the seabed.
The search for Bryn Martin, 64, continued on Tuesday after he failed to return to Cottesloe Beach from his swim out to a buoy just after 8am (WST) on Monday.
During an intensive air, sea and foreshore search on Monday, a pair of torn Speedo bathers was found on the seabed near the buoy.
The bathers were identified as Mr Martin's by his distraught wife, and a West Australian Fisheries Department officer said the damage to them was consistent with a great white shark attack.
The popular beach remained closed on Tuesday, with police, surf lifesavers and SAS soldiers from a nearby barracks involved in the search.
Police senior sergeant Denise Grant told reporters that Mr Martin's family had accepted he would not be found alive and the search had moved into a recovery operation for his remains.
"It's heartbreaking from a policing perspective to see a family go through so much trauma when there are no answers at the moment," she said.
Mr Martin, from Mosman Park in Perth's west, was CEO of the James Point consortium, a building company planning a private port near Kwinana in Perth's south.
His son Alistair told reporters his father had always been involved in water sports.
"He loved his morning swim and was aware and accepted the risks associated with ocean activities," he said.
"Yesterday we received news that any family would dread."
Mr Martin said his father was a "great person" and a lot of people would miss him.
He thanked the searchers and said it was hoped the family would get the closure they needed.
WA Fisheries Department shark scientist Rory McAuley told reporters he was "nearly 100 per cent certain that the damage I saw with the gentleman's bathers was caused by a shark", likely a great white.
The presumed shark fatality is the third in WA's southwest in 13 months and has sparked debate about whether more can be done to prevent attacks off the state's beaches.
Dr McAuley said that was "a very unusual and tragic spate of shark attacks" in the state.
"Every time you enter the ocean there's a very remote possibility that you might encounter a shark and an even more unlikely probability that that encounter might result in an attack," he said.
Dr McAuley said every shark attack was different and it was plausible that no one would have seen any surface disturbance during the presumed attack on Mr Martin and that a body might not be found.
Last month a shark killed 21-year-old bodyboarder Kyle Burden at Bunker Bay near Dunsborough in WA's southwest.
That attack happened about 50 kilometres up the coast from Gracetown, where 31-year-old Nicholas Edwards was killed by a shark on August 17 last year.
In November 2000, 48-year-old Ken Crew was killed by a shark at North Cottesloe Beach.
On Tuesday, WA Premier Colin Barnett expressed his sympathy to Mr Martin's family and friends and defended the level of shark patrols over Perth's 50km to 60km of beaches, and their starting time of November 1.
Mr Barnett said the government had boosted funding for the patrols, which were now carried out by helicopter rather than fixed-wing aircraft.
Most beach users recognised the ocean was "the domain of the shark" and the recent fatalities were a sad reminder that if people went into the ocean there was "always a risk", he said.
The state government's policy was that sharks would only be destroyed or chased out to sea if they posed a direct threat to beachgoers, Mr Barnett said

I thought it was a bit weird when they announced that his family would be holding a press conference, why ? Seriously it seems as though he was taken by a shark, what are his family going to say about it ?

Its like god hates australia too, why else fill the place with deadly spiders, snakes, crocs and sharks... you cant even lay on the grass without stinging ants trying to kill you,, If you get through the day without getting killed or maimed by one of those you will probably get your eyes pecked out by a magpie!!

Can't Wait!!

Kinda puts you off swimming in the Ocean tbh...I swam at cottesloe last year...its a fab swimming beach..apart from the sharks obviously!

I hope they find his body at least to give the family some closure. Theres been a few at that beach now.

Apparently Julia Gillard has been invited to swim down there

Lets hope she accepts the invitation. to see the lovely beaches.