-
Source: Photos.com
Popular beaches along Western Australia's mid-west coast remain closed as attempts are made to catch and cull the "massive" white shark that killed a male surfer yesterday.
The fatal attack occurred at 9am local time, 4 kilometres south
of Wedge Island, which is a family holiday hotspot about 160km
north of Perth.
The victim, whose identity is yet to be released, was surfing about
200 metres off an isolated beach, the WA Department of Fisheries
said.
The 24-year-old victim's body is yet to be recovered.
Shark Response Unit spokesman Tony Cappelluti said patrol vessels were on the scene and officers had ordered shark capture gear to be set.
"When last seen the shark was heading offshore, but we have placed baited lines in the water near the attack site, in an attempt to catch the shark should it return to the location or pose a threat in the area," Cappelluti said in a statement.
Eyewitnesses told police they had seen the shark swim out to deeper water after the attack and there had been no further sightings.
The shark capture lines would remain in the water for the rest of the day and a decision would be made before nightfall whether to remove the gear, Cappelluti said.
"Any further use would be dependent on any new shark sightings, operational assessments and weather conditions," he said.
A jet skier tried to retrieve the body when it was being circled by the "massive" shark.
"There was just blood everywhere," he told the ABC.
"I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to throw me off.
"I did another loop and when I came back to get the body, the shark took it."
'Unprecedented' number of shark attacks
The death is the fifth fatal shark attack off the WA coast in the past 12 months.
On March 31, 33-year-old diver Peter Kurmann was taken by a shark in waters near Busselton in the state's south west.
A 32-year-old American, George Wainwright, died after being bitten by a great white shark on October 22 last year while diving off the tourist destination of Rottnest Island offshore Perth.
Only 12 days earlier, 64-year-old Bryn Martin disappeared while taking his daily swim at Perth's popular Cottesloe Beach. His Speedos were later found, with experts saying damage was consistent with a shark attack.
On September 4 last year, Kyle James Burden was attacked while bodyboarding at Bunker Bay, about 300km south of Perth.
In April, WA Fisheries senior shark research scientist Rory McAuley said the state was the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks.
McAuley said there had been an "unprecedented" number of fatal shark attacks off WA in the past two years.
A world-first acoustic tagging program introduced last year has shown sharks are lingering off the metropolitan coast for months at a time.