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 The shark "bounced off the board" of one surfer "before attacking
the other male" off a beach near Gracetown, said Western Australia
state police Sgt. Norm Giocas.
The sleepy community of Gracetown has now been the site of three
fatal shark attacks on surfers in the past decade. Surfers were also
killed there in 2004 and 2010.
The victim, whose identity was known but not immediately released
while police notified relatives, died instantly from massive
injuries, Giocas said, adding that beachgoers brought his body
ashore.
Surfer Ryan Scanlon saw the body and told the PerthNow news website
that the victim had lost his left arm and flesh from his right leg.
The state Fisheries Department immediately closed beaches in the
area, which is the state's premier surfing and wine-making region,
located south of the state capital, Perth. The victim lived in
Margaret River, the main town in the region.
Marine officers were being sent with shark catching gear to deploy
in the surrounding waters as soon as possible, the department said.
No details about the type of shark were immediately released,
although great whites are often responsible for fatalities off the
west coast.
The fatality is the first this year in Australian waters, where
shark deaths average more than one a year and are becoming
increasingly common.
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After a spate of five fatalities off the west coast within 12 months
scared tourists and locals alike, the Western Australia government
last year approved a plan to kill sharks that venture too close to
people in the water.
The policy infuriated conservationists and marked a sharp reversal
of the previous policy, which permitted the killing of sharks only
after they attacked.
There have been several shark attacks in Australian waters recently
that did not end in death.
Greg Pickering, a 55-year-old abalone diver, was attacked around the
head and back last month by what officials suspect was a 3-meter
(10-foot) great white shark near the Western Australia city of
Esperance, southeast of Perth. It was the second time Pickering had
found himself in the jaws of a shark in nine years. In 2004, he was
bitten on the leg while spearfishing near Cervantes, north of Perth.
[Associated
Press]
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