A 39-year-old man has died following a shark attack in Far North Queensland.
Emergency services rushed to Hull Heads beach, about 160 kilometres south of Cairns, after being called just after 12pm.
The man was at Kennedy Shoal, a submerged reef about 40km offshore, roughly halfway between Mission Beach and Cardwell, when he was attacked by a shark.
His body was later brought by boat to the Hull Heads Boat Ramp following the incident.
Police are preparing a report for the coroner.
The tragedy marks Australia’s second fatal shark attack in less than a week.
Perth father-of-two Steven Mattaboni, 38, was killed in a horror shark attack off Rottnest Island on Saturday morning.
Mr Mattaboni was spearfishing with friends near Horseshoe Reef off Geordie Bay when he was attacked by a shark believed to have been a great white.
The attack happened at about 10am while he was on the surface of the water.
A man is fighting for life following a shark attack in Far North Queensland
His friends desperately tried to save him, performing CPR as they rushed him by boat to Geordie Bay, where paramedics were waiting, but he died despite their efforts.
Mission Beach fishing charter operator Gererd Pike said he was with a group not far from the scene of the fatal attack.
‘The sharks were vicious today,’ he told the Courier Mail.
‘We watched a group of six of them tear a Spanish mackerel apart only about 4m from our boat.’
Authorities have yet to confirm the exact species of shark however Kurrimine Beach commercial fisherman Chris Bolton said in the past 10 years he had witnessed a sharp increase in the number of ‘mongrel’ types including bull sharks and pig eye sharks.
‘They’ve just taken over, they’re all over the waters around that Tully Mission Beach area but up the coast too,’ he told the Courier Mail.
‘We know they’re smart animals and with the amount of recreational fishing happening, they’re learning to follow boat motors because that means food.
‘And the more food they get, the more the population just grows. Unfortunately I think (shark-human) stuff will only happen more frequently.’
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