One man dead in shark attack off Western Australian coast
A scuba diver has died after he was attacked by a shark in Western Australia this afternoon. Police have not yet been able to recover his body.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ‘Blood everywhere’: How shark attacked
- ‘I knew I’d been bitten but I didn’t realise … how big it was’
A man has died after he was attacked by a shark off the Western Australian coast this afternoon.
He was scuba diving near the town of Esperance in the state’s southern coast near Cull Island when he was bitten shortly after 1pm.
His body has not yet been recovered.
WA Police said specialist divers and the police helicopter searched for the man’s body this afternoon.
“They are still searching the ocean for the victim,” police said in a statement this afternoon.
“A woman who was on board the boat at the time of the incident has been returned to shore, and has been taken by St John Ambulance to hospital. She is suffering from shock.”
The state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development were assisting WA Police following the attack, according to a statement published on the Western Australian Government’s Sharksmart website yesterday.
It said the man had been bitten by a white shark.
There have been 12 fatal shark attacks in Western Australia in the past 10 years.
In 2017, 17-year-old surfer Laeticia Brouwer died after she was mauled by a Great White Shark at Wylie Bay near Esperance, just 12km east of today’s fatal attack.
The following year, Competitors at the Margaret River Pro in Gracetown in the state’s southwest were told to stay out of the water after two attacks on surfers near the competition site.
Following the two non-fatal attacks, the WA government bowed to public pressure and began a trial of non-lethal baited hooks affixed to drumlines off the Gracetown coast to deter Great White sharks.
A previous trial of drum line baiting had been unpopular because the sharks were left on the drum line and later shot dead, sparking protests in Perth and Sydney by animal welfare activists.
Under the current trial, when the shark takes the bait an alarm alerts a government contractor who comes and release it further out to sea within 30 minutes.