ONE of the surfers in the water when a shark was spotted at Yallingup recently said the community believed a rogue shark could be responsible for the increase in sightings.
Brett Merifield told the Mail last week about being the shark scare.
“It was about 40m away, there was just one fin and it was probably two or three feet out of the water,” he said.
“There is talk that it was a large great white shark, probably around 4.5m long.
“The community is basically wondering whether there is a rogue shark hanging around.”
The shark had been spotted by one of the two surfers Brett was in the water with, who believed it was “heading straight towards him”.
The scare caused Brett, who was already apprehensive, but did not want to give up surfing, to purchase an ankle strap designed to warn off sharks.
The strap, which he purchased the next day, sends an electronic pulse within a 6m radius of the surfer to get rid of sharks, he said.
“I’ve had a few surfs since then, and there’s more and more surfers buying these now.”
The shark was the first of three large ones spotted in the vicinity that weekend.
And another great white was reported at Windmills, off Yallingup, on Saturday.
Fisheries received a report that a 3m shark circled four surfers around 10.30am.