Shark scare at bayside beach
Lucy Battersby
December 5, 2008 - 7:43PM
Sightings of a three-metre shark at a bayside beach forced swimmers out of the water this afternoon.
The shark was first reported off Parkdale Beach, Mentone, at 4pm and police patrolled the beach for hours searching for the predator.
"The police helicopter, foot patrol, motor cyclists and jet skis are here," the manager of the Parkdale Beach Cafe Anna Ikonomou said late in the afternoon.
"The police helicopter is still hovering around."
Ms Ikonomou said about 20 people were ordered from the water and swimmers were still not allowed back in, although a helicopter patrol had failed to sight the shark at that stage.
Police were particularly concerned for the safety of one women swimming far from the shore, beach but she eventually returned to land when she noticed the helicopter hovering over the area.
Police say sightings of a three-metre Tiger or Bronze Whaler shark were confirmed late in the day and Parkdale Beach was closed for 600 metres in both directions of the spot.
Im glad the forcast is for westerlies on saturday, no need to go to Parky.. oh crap thats not far from ricketts 
the westerly should blow the Parky Sharky further away from Ricketts 
Not so good for Bonnie though
Boys,
Parky is Ok when it is west. I was going to sail at Parky today but looked at the Mordi SC wind stats and it looked light. Tony M went out and said the police stopped people going out. The funny thing is that they only closed a 60 metre section! Like Mr Sharkle Larkle can't swim!
I think I might stop calling one of the local sailors shark bait!
Jman said
Depends, he may be able to tack upwind
Maybe, Jerry...... Especially if he's running a big fin.
I had sail at Parkdale last night and water along the beach for about 50m out is very dirty. You would even know when you jumped off your board if your about land the rocks there or a shark. You should have seen port Melb yesterday with all the digging. The bay look a mess in shore.
There were helicopters and police boats out at St. Kilda last night, kinda going around aimlessly. Made me wonder if there had been another sighting...
It got a lot worse when I snapped my UJ and had to swim in from about 700m out, right the way through all the crap at Port Melbourne - I actively had to swim around that dredge platform because I ditched dead upwind of the thing!
Nothing like a bit of sharkfear to keep one moving....
