Yorke Peninsula town shattered after Khai Cowley killed by a great white shark

Locals from a small beachside town have been left shattered after a teenager was killed by a shark on a popular beach as harrowing new details emerged. 

Khai Cowley was fatally mauled by the suspected great white while surfing off remote Ethel Beach on the Yorke Peninsula, west of Adelaide, about 1.30pm on Thursday.  

Emergency services rushed to the popular surfing spot in Innes National Park but were unable to save the 15-year-old’s life. 

Devastated residents who live nearby are struggling to come to terms with his death following the shocking incident. 

Ryan Valente, a local skipper with Reef Encounters who knows the Marion Bay region well, said it was unusual to see great whites in the area and could not recall any similar incidents.

‘It’s stuff nightmares are made of,’ Mr Valente told ABC Radio on Friday.

‘Yesterday itself conditions-wise was a very grim day – lightning, strong winds and it was quite a dark day.

‘The town’s in a bit of shock, I guess. Our hearts go out to the family that are involved in the tragic incident.’

Sean Hanna, who has been coming to the beach for four decades visited the beach on Friday morning after he heard about the boy’s death. 

‘I came down here to pay my respects to a young surfer,’ he told the The Advertiser.

Mr Hanna praised Khai for doing what he loved even though he said conditions in the water weren’t ideal at the time the teen was killed.

‘It wasn’t the best, there was a lot of whitewater but he wanted to be a part of it and that’s something any surfer could understand.’ 

Luke Winter who lives in Port Noarlunga about a four hour drive north of Ethel beach said he knew Khai for most of his life. 

‘They’re very well known in the surf community, which just makes this news so much more tragic,’ he told the newspaper. 

The 38-year-old man who has two boys of his own said there were other children on the beach on Thursday afternoon who saw the terrifying incident unfold. 

Earlier, another local told the newspaper that the shark had grabbed the boy’s leg before another man paddled out into the water to rescue him but he couldn’t be saved by the time he was bought back to shore.  

They said the shark was circling the pair and there was a lot of blood in the water. 

Surfing SA paid tribute to the talented surfer ‘grom’ from Maslin Beach in Adelaide’s south.

‘Khai was very involved in our surfing community with his passion for surfing stemming from a family with deep surfing roots in SA,’ the group said on Instagram.

‘He was a happy, kind and respectful kid, very much loved by his surfing peers and he will be greatly missed out in our community and on the water.’

Andrew Fox, a researcher at the Rodney Fox Shark Museum, said great whites are ambush predators and murky conditions on Thursday may have increased their activity.

‘They’re more motivated – bigger swell, dirty water,’ he told ABC Radio.

‘Anything that increases the chances of an ambush predator.’

Khai’s death rounds out a horror year for SA beachgoers, with three people killed by sharks and another two injured in the state’s waters in 2023.

Teacher Simon Baccanello, 46, died in a suspected shark attack while surfing at Walkers Rock Beach, about 365km west of Adelaide, in May before 55-year-old Tod Gendle was killed surfing at Granites Beach on the state’s west coast in October.

Their bodies have not been recovered.

Professor Charlie Huveneers, a shark expert at Flinders University, said the number of bites had risen globally over the past four decades but they still occurred infrequently.

Human population growth, habitat destruction, declining water quality, climate change and the changing distribution of sharks and their prey were all likely contributors.

Dr Huveneers said there were three main ways to mitigate shark attacks and serious injuries, including reducing the overlap of sharks and humans by establishing swimming enclosures or aerial surveillance, the use of personal electrical deterrents and the use of bite-resistant wetsuits.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said his thoughts were with Khai’s family.

‘I can’t think of anything more horrific, particularly at this time of year,’ he told Channel Nine.

Mr Malinauskas said the government was looking at a range of deterrents but the remoteness of South Australian beaches made it a difficult task.

‘We’ve got a coastline in South Australia that’s basically the equivalent of NSW and Victoria combined,’ he said.

‘It’s impossible to net the entire area.

‘But we’ve seen 11 fatal shark attacks in South Australia since the year 2000, so the fact we’ve seen three across this summer is startling and it is of concern.’

A GoFundMe set up by Khai’s family to help pay for his funeral costs had raised more than $40,000 by Friday afternoon – more than five times its target.