Luke Walford killed after shark attack while fishing with family on Humpy Island
The 40-year-old was fishing with with family on Humpy Island when he was bitten on the neck by a shark. He succumbed to his injuries on Saturday evening. DETAILS
Rockhampton
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The man who died after being bitten on the neck by a shark in waters off the Keppel Islands has been identified.
Luke Walford, 40, succumbed to his severe injuries on Saturday evening after the incident while fishing with his family on Humpy Island.
Paramedics desperately worked to save Mr Walford’s life after he suffered neck wounds when he was bitten by a shark off Humpy Island in The Keppels area, about 20km off the mainland.
The incident occurred at 4.37pm Saturday.
Police confirmed the man tragically died from his injuries just before 6.00pm on the December 28.
A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the 40-year-old man had been fishing with family members when he was bitten by a shark.
Mr Walford, a chaplain at a Rockhampton High School, was remembered by friends online as a “gentle soul” who would be “sorely missed”.
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
Earlier this afternoon a Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed paramedics were treating a man in his 40s with critical injuries following a shark attack.
The paramedics were flown to Humpy island camping area, which is in the Keppel Bay Islands National Park, via a helicopter.
This comes just weeks after a man in his 60s was bitten by a shark while spearfishing off Curtis Island on December 2.
Bystanders provided crucial first aid to help control the bleeding for the shark bite victim who suffered minor to moderate wounds to his forearms in the incident which occurred about 8.25am.
He was initially taken to Curtis Island where he was met by emergency services, before being brought into Gladstone with the assistance of a police boat.
According to the Australian Shark-Incident Database, there have been at least four other shark attacks in Australian waters so far this year including one off Mackay on October 30 and at Bargara Beach on March 12.
A 57-year-old woman suffered two 30cm bite wounds to her calf while snorkelling on a reef about 200km off Mackay’s coast.
It took more than eight hours to get her back to shore in an operation that involved the Australian navy.
First aid was immediately provided by bystanders on the boat she had been on, with others binding her leg with an emergency bandage to stop the bleeding.
The Anzac-class frigate HMAS Warramunga, which had been undertaking an exercise in waters off Mackay, was called to assist and rendezvoused with the woman about 9.30pm Wednesday. The medical team on board treated her before she was transferred.
And in March a girl, aged about 13, is believed to have puncture wounds to her abdomen and lower back in a suspected shark bite incident.
She was treated for minor wounds after being bitten by a shark while swimming near Nielsen Park Beach about 4pm.