A father’s final act was one of courage at Dee Why beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where a massive shark fatally attacked him as he tried to shield fellow surfers.
Mercury Psillakis, 57, spotted the predator about 100 metres from shore and urged his friends to stay close for safety before the shark suddenly breached, eyewitnesses told the Daily Telegraph.
“He was at the back of the pack still trying to get everyone together when the shark just lined him up,” said friend and former pro-surfer Toby Martin.
“It came straight from behind and breached and dropped straight on him. It’s the worst-case scenario.
“They normally come from the side but this one came straight from behind, breached and dropped on him. It was so quick.”
Psillakis disappeared under the waves before part of his torso resurfaced closer to shore.
“A couple of the guys had to get the remaining parts of his torso into shore which was pretty traumatic,” Martin said.
Surfers brought his remains back to the beach and comforted his devastated family.
Witness Mark Morgenthal told Sky News the shark was “huge,” estimating its length at about six metres. He recalled a man’s desperate cries moments before the attack.
“There was a guy screaming, ‘I don’t want to get bitten, I don’t want to get bitten, don’t bite me,’ and I saw the dorsal fin of the shark come up, and it was huge,” Morgenthal said.
“Then I saw the tail fin come up and start kicking, and the distance between the dorsal fin and the tail fin looked to be about four metres, so it actually looked like a six-metre shark.”
Mercury’s twin brother, Mike, was nearby at Long Reef beach, just north of Dee Why in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, for a junior surf competition when the tragedy unfolded.
The brothers were lifelong locals and passionate surfers, with Mike hand-shaping boards and often sharing their surf memories online.
Beaches along the stretch from Dee Why to Long Reef, including North Curl Curl, North Narrabeen and Collaroy, were cleared as police and lifeguards responded.
Local woman Sophie Lumsden described the chaos, “I was sitting at the beach having a coffee and the shark alarm went off. Four ambulances arrived minutes later. It doesn’t look like they were able to save him.”
Superintendent John Duncan praised those who helped recover Psillakis but confirmed his injuries were catastrophic.
Experts believe a great white was responsible. Legendary diver Valerie Taylor told the Daily Telegraph the scale of the bite pointed to a “very large” shark.
“Bull sharks jerk and shake and take out a chunk but a great white will come and take one big bite,” Taylor said.
“To take a bite like this would mean it was a very large great white.”
Bond University’s Associate Professor Daryl McPhee said great whites are more common off the coast of Sydney in spring during whale migration but stressed the overall risk remains very low.
Government biologists are analysing surfboard fragments to confirm the species.
The attack came on a bright spring morning, just a day before Father’s Day, leaving the Sydney Northern Beaches community grieving a husband, father and dedicated surfer.
NSW Premier Chris Minns called the death an “awful tragedy.”
“Shark attacks are rare, but they leave a huge mark on everyone involved, particularly the close-knit surfing community,” Minns said.
The state government spends more than $21 million annually on shark management, including nets at 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong from September 2025.
Three councils, including Sydney’s Northern Beaches, have been asked to nominate beaches where nets could be removed.
“We asked them to nominate a beach and they didn’t but we will continue to work with those councils about what the program will look like,” Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty told budget estimates.
Concerns about bycatch have prompted officials to reconsider nets.
They were pulled out early this year to protect turtles, while the state also relies on drones and drumlines for shark monitoring.
Long Reef Beach uses drumlines but no nets, while nearby Dee Why beach does have a net.
The last fatal shark attack in Sydney was in February 2022, when British diving instructor Simon Nellist was killed by a great white at Little Bay, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
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