A man in his 30s has been fatally attacked by a great white shark off the coast of western Australia, according to police and officials.
The 38-yr-old was bitten by the shark just before 10am local time off Rottnest Island, near the city of Perth, reports RTE.
“Sadly, the man was unable to be revived,” Western Australia police confirmed.
The state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said the man had been attacked by a great white shark measuring approximately four metres in length, reports RTE.
The public was urged to exercise additional caution in the waters surrounding the area, which is a popular tourist destination.
It is the first fatal shark attack in Western Australia since March of last year, when a surfer was killed off a remote beach, reports RTE.
There have been close to 1,300 recorded shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which more than 260 resulted in death, according to a database tracking encounters between sharks and humans.
Prior to Saturday’s fatality, the most recent death had been that of a 12-year-old boy killed in a shark attack in Sydney Harbour in January — one of four attacks recorded over the course of two days, which prompted authorities to close dozens of city beaches, reports RTE.
Australian scientists believe that increasingly busy waters and rising ocean temperatures are altering sharks’ migratory patterns, which may be contributing to a growing number of attacks, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
