In the days before Martyn Tann vanished while swimming at Mullaloo Beach in 2013, he asked his uncle if they could go out to a yellow buoy about 200 metres offshore during their daily swim.
His uncle, a local who Tann was visiting from his home in New South Wales, declined, saying there were too many sharks around to swim out that far.
“A person would have to be unlucky to be taken by a shark whilst doing that,” was Tann’s reply.
Days later, the marine biologist and experienced diver was seen by beachgoers arriving at Mullaloo Beach alone, setting down his bag and beginning his regular swim. Only this time, one witness reported he was swimming in the direction of the yellow buoy.
Around the same time, other beachgoers noticed a pod of dolphins swimming at speed and acting unusually about 30 to 40 metres offshore. The witness, a triathlete who was well acquainted with the ocean, got his family out of the water due to fears the pod’s strange behaviour was due to being chased by a shark.
Around 10 minutes later, he spotted who he believed was Tann in the water, and noted his good swimming technique.
Other beachgoers also said they saw the dolphin pod acting unusually, and that about 15 minutes after that encounter, they saw a commotion in a patch of flat, clam water approximately 100 metres from shore.
They stated it was bubbling and boiling, splashing water approximately one metre into the air as the patch moved across the water at walking pace.
Nobody knew what had caused the commotion, but commented to each other that they’d never seen anything like it.
Later that day, a kite surfer noticed a backpack on the beach. Assuming someone was returning to collect it, he went out surfing. When he returned about two hours later, the bag was still there.
He reported it to the Life Saving Club and left his contact details with them before taking the bag home, and looking through it for contact details to find its owner.
The man rang Tann’s father, who in turn rang his brother, who Tann was staying with while holidaying in Perth.
The family were already becoming worried that Tann had not returned from his beach swim.
When they could not find him, they reported him missing later that day. A four-day search returned no sightings of Tann.
About a week after the search was called-off, a white short-sleeved shirt was found amongst seaweed, covered in jagged cuts.
The shirt was similar to the one Tann was seen wearing in the water.
A shark expert later deemed the damage to the shirt was consistent with items being bitten by sharks, but was unable to determine whether the shirt was being worn at the time the damage occurred.
Tann has never been seen or heard from since.
On Monday, a coronial investigation into his suspected death began in Perth.
WA Police believe Tann died in the ocean on April 2, 2013.
His family have long held the hope that his carefree and adventurous spirit had taken him on a new adventure to a remote community or the like, but there is no evidence to support that theory.
Tann’s suspected death occurred in the months after the WA government commenced its controversial and later dumped “catch and kill” policy for sharks repeatedly sighted at Perth and South West beaches.
A year earlier, a ski paddler had survived an encounter with a 3.5 metre white shark which knocked him off his craft about 150 metre offshore at Mullaloo Beach.
There have been no confirmed fatal shark attacks at the popular beach.
