‘I still love sharks’ says woman attacked off Far North Queensland

A woman who was bitten by a shark in Far North Queensland today said she still loved sharks.

A woman attacked by a shark in Far North Queensland has declared her affection for the predators just hours after she was bitten.

The 29-year-old was swimming about 100m offshore from Fitzroy Island on Tuesday when the incident occurred.

Footage captured by Seven News shows the woman yelling: “I still love sharks, sharks are beautiful” as she was wheeled off the rescue chopper on a gurney.

The woman tells of her affection for sharks as she is taken by stretcher to hospital in Cairns. Picture: News Corp Australia

Queensland Ambulance Service critical care paramedic Terry Cumming said the woman, who has been making a shark documentary, was enjoying a day off.

She was taken to shore and treated by doctors on the island.

Paramedics arrived by helicopter and continued to apply first aid to the woman onsite, before she was transported to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition.

The woman was airlifted to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition. Picture: Queensland Ambulance Service

Mr Cumming said she had suffered a possible broken ankle and some lacerations.

“She’s fine,” he said.

“We were preparing for the worst but obviously when we got there the injuries weren’t as severe as we were first told, but enough to cause her distress.”

Mr Cumming said the woman only saw the shark for a few seconds so couldn’t identify the breed.

He said it was the first time he had heard of an attack on Fitzroy Island, which is located on the Great Barrier Reef, about 29km south-west of Cairns.

The woman was attacked by the shark off Fitzroy Island, near Cairns in Far North Queensland. Picture: Google Maps.

“It’s beautiful out there today,” he said.

“There is nice clear water and the conditions are lovely.”

This latest incident follows a spate of fatal shark attacks along Australia’s eastern coastline in recent months.

Teenager Mani Hart-Deville, 15, was killed on Saturday while surfing at Wooli Beach off the NSW north coast.

Sunshine Coast man and father-of-two Matthew Tratt died one week earlier.

The 36-year-old was spear fishing with his brother off Indian Head on Fraser Island when he was attacked, while Gold Coast surfer Rob Pedretti was fatally mauled in June while surfing south of Kingscliff in northern NSW.

Shark attack fatalities in Australia were already at a 10-year high before Tuesday’s incident.