Woman rescued by navy after shark bite horror off Mackay

A woman has been rescued by a navy vessel after she was reportedly bitten by a shark while snorkelling off the Queensland coast.

A Queensland woman has been rescued by a navy vessel after she was reportedly bitten by a shark while snorkelling off the coast.

The woman had been on a vessel off Mackay and it is understood the Royal Australian Navy reached her first after the emergency call went out.

Queensland Ambulance Service was notified at 4.27pm on Wednesday that a woman had suffered multiple lacerations to her lower leg following a shark bite while snorkelling about 200km off the Mackay coast.

QAS confirmed HMAS Warramunga rendezvoused with the woman, providing medical assistance before arriving at Mackay Harbour about 12.45am Thursday.

Tiger sharks and bull sharks are among the most common off Mackay waters.

She was then taken by paramedics to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition where she remains.

In October 2021, the victim of a vicious shark attack in the Whitsundays told how admitted he felt ‘it come up and grab onto my leg’ after the beast savagely ripped chunks of his body.

Two years earlier, an English tourist had his foot bitten off and a second man suffered serious lacerations to his lower leg in a horror attack near Hook Island.

The woman suffered multiple lacerations to the lower leg and was taken to Mackay Base Hospital.

The two men, Alistair Raddon, 28 and Danny Maggs, 22, had been wrestling and thrashing about in the water when they were attacked by the shark during a day trip in the Whitsundays.

That incident in Hook Passage, between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island – about 11km from Cid Harbour, where Melbourne man Daniel Christidis died following an attack on November 5, 2018 and two others injured including a 12-year-old girl late last year.

HUGE SHARKS CAUGHT OFF K’GARI

Earlier this year, it was revealed almost 1000 sharks as big as 5m have been caught off Queensland beaches in the past year, with the Capricorn Coast easily claiming the dubious title of the state’s shark capital.

The government of the time was looking to unleash new technology, including AI-armed drones, in a bid to keep beachgoers safe from the shark menace.

Nearly 90 sharks were caught on drumlines off Tannum Sands beach near Gladstone in 2023. More than 240 sharks – or almost 25 per cent – were caught on drumlines off the Capricorn Coast as part of the state’s shark control program in 2023.

They included two 4-5m monsters and 12 sharks measuring 3-4m, including 57 whalers, 44 tigers and a great white.

But Tannum Sands near Gladstone was the state’s most sharky beach, with 87 caught in drumlines almost double the number caught the year before.

Other shark hotspots included Townsville, where 180 sharks were caught in drumlines off the city’s eight shark-controlled beaches last year.

More than 120 sharks were caught off Sunshine Coast beaches, including 14 sharks of 3-4m.

Eighty-five sharks were caught off the Gold Coast, including one 4-5m monster, five great whites and nine sharks bigger than 2m at popular swimming and surfing spot Rainbow Bay.

More to come

Originally published as Woman rescued by navy after shark bite horror off Mackay