A person spearfishing with mates was killed by a shark on the Nice Barrier Reef on Sunday, police mentioned, in Australia’s second deadly shark assault in simply over every week.
The 39-year-old man was with three mates diving from a ship at Kennedy Shoal off the Queensland state coast south of Cairns when he was attacked, Police Inspector Elaine Burns mentioned.
“The person had been spearfishing when he was attacked and died from a crucial head harm,” Burns instructed reporters.
Police mentioned the person who pulled the sufferer from the water was “fairly shut” to the incident and witnessed the assault, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported. folks have been on board the boat
“I’d assume they’d be fairly traumatized, that is fairly a terrifying factor to see occur proper in entrance of you,” Burns mentioned.
The unidentified sufferer, a Cairns resident, was introduced by boat round midday to the vacationer city of Hull Heads the place paramedics have been ready. He had “sustained accidents not appropriate with life,” an ambulance service assertion mentioned.
Kennedy Shoal is a shallow coral reef fashionable with leisure fishers. Divers are additionally interested in the Woman Bowen, a nineteenth century shipwreck.
Police mentioned the species of shark concerned within the assault was unknown at this stage, however fishers reported bull sharks had been seen within the space earlier than the assault.
“Sharks are competing with the fishermen”
Gererd Pike of Hooked Up Fishing mentioned his fishing constitution boat was six miles from Kennedy Shoal on Sunday and he had seen massive numbers of “vicious, unpredictable” bull sharks within the space.
“We have been chasing Spanish mackerel and had one eaten by a pack of six of them, 4 metres off the sting of the boat,” he instructed AFP.
“We weren’t going to dip toes within the water,” he added.
Pike mentioned he heard the emergency providers name within the incident over his boat’s radio.
One other boat constitution operator with a vessel close by mentioned shark assaults within the space have been uncommon, though bull sharks and tiger sharks have been discovered there.
“It isn’t quite common in any respect. It’s a type of unlucky issues,” Rob Parsonage, of Mission Seashore Dive, instructed AFP.
“The sharks are competing with the fishermen,” he mentioned.
Sunday’s deadly shark assault is the third in Australia this yr, and comes every week after a shark fatally mauled spearfisher Steve Mattabonni at a coral reef off Rottnest Island close to the southwest coast of Western Australia state. Mattabonni was with mates who “witnessed the horrific occasion,” Western Australia Police Sergeant Michael Put on mentioned.
The 38-year-old Perth resident was taken by boat to the vacation island the place paramedics have been unable to resuscitate him.
A 16-foot white shark was suspected.
Australia has averaged greater than three deadly shark assaults a yr in current many years. The most recent demise is Australia’s third shark fatality for 2026.
Nico Antic, 12, died in a hospital days after he was attacked by a suspected bull shark off a Sydney seaside on Jan. 18. The assault that killed the boy was one among 4 recorded within the span of two days, which prompted officers to shut dozens of town’s seashores.
In November, a shark killed a lady and severely wounded a person at a nationwide park seaside on Australia’s east coast in a uncommon occasion of the predator attacking two folks.
There have been almost 1,300 shark incidents round Australia since 1791, of which greater than 260 resulted in demise, based on a database of the predators’ encounters with people.
Australian scientists imagine more and more crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are swaying sharks’ migratory patterns, which can be contributing to an increase in assaults.
