Swimmers take the plunge at last year’s ocean swim event at Malabar.Credit:James Alcock
Organiser Rob Lloyd said thetragic fatality had cast a pall over the event.
"Out of respect for the deceased and the Malabar community we’ve elected to cancel this year's Malabar Magic Ocean Swim,"he said.
"We don’t want the focus to be around the tragedy and not the ocean swim. We thought the respectful and best thing for the community as a whole was to cancel the event."
The swim raises funds for Rainbow Club,a charity that provides swimming lessons to children with disabilities. More than $128,000 has been raised so far this year.
"We will be encouraging people to donate their registration fee to the Rainbow Club to continue our great work giving 1400 kids with disabilities one-on-one swimming lessons,"Mr Lloyd said.
Council,lifesavers and the police were all involved in the decision to cancel the swim following the fatal shark attack at Little Bay on Wednesday,although Mr Lloyd was confident it would have been safe to hold by Sunday.
"The safety of swimmers is our preeminent concern. People do organised ocean swims because there are jet skis and lots of water safety around the swim. We absolutely could have conducted a swim safely on Sunday,"he said.