Photo: Nicka35 // Instagram
The Gold Coast was recently rocked by three days of severe storms. According to 7 News Australia, gusts of up to 57 miles per hour toppled trees, damaged buildings and brought down power lines this week. Amid all that, one Gold Coast surfer found himself blown out to sea and hooked on a drum line.
The news comes from Instagram account Nicka35, who posted a clip of the event, pulled from a Surfline webcam. “Footage just in shows a surfer blown out to sea in a mini cyclone on the Gold Coast this week,” reads the caption. “CCTV captures the man returning to the beach fatigued and unable to walk from the hectic experience.”
However, even that harrowing description didn’t capture the extent of the man’s ordeal. In a comment on the same post, Nicka35 added “I have spoken with emergency services, who confirm the 69 year old man was blown into the shark drum line, where he was actually severed [sic] on the leg by the hook! He is ok and out of the Robina hospital.”
A drumline is a controversial shark deterrent measure that is essentially a large, baited hook attached to a floating barrel. The effectiveness of the devices has long been a subject of debate, in no small part because of their propensity for snaring ocean creatures other than sharks. Usually, that means errant sea turtles, fish or non-target shark species, but this latest incident shows that even humans can fall afoul of the traps.
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