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A shark fatally mauled a diver off an Australian tourist island on Saturday, police said, marking the country’s second fatal shark attack so far this year.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old man had been spearfishing with friends when he was attacked on a coral reef off Rottnest Island near Australia’s southwest coast, Western Australia Police Sergeant Michael Wear said.<\/p>\n
“The friends have witnessed the horrific event,” Wear said.<\/p>\n
The victim was near a dive boat when he was bitten on the legs, Wear said. He was then taken by that boat 1,100 yards to the island, where paramedics could not resuscitate him.<\/p>\n
Lifeguards reported a 16-foot white shark had been seen in the vicinity before the attack, and the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development told AFP the man had been bitten by a great white.<\/p>\n
Officials did not name the victim but he was identified as Steven Mattaboni by family members, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n
Mattaboni’s wife, Shirene, said the family’s “hearts are irrevocably broken.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Steven was a devoted father to our two beautiful daughters \u2014 one who turns three next month and our four-month-old baby,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, Western Australia Premier Roger Cook called the shark attack “deeply distressing” and thanked first responders and emergency personnel for their efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It is a devastating time for all involved,” Cook said.<\/p>\n
The attack was Australia’s first shark fatality since January, when a 12-year-old boy died<\/span> in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. The attack that killed the boy was one of four recorded in the span of two days<\/span>, which prompted officials to close dozens of the city’s beaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November, a shark killed a woman<\/span> and seriously wounded a man at a national park beach on Australia’s east coast in a rare instance of the predator attacking two people.<\/p>\n Rottnest Island’s last fatal shark attack was in 2011, in which a 32-year-old diver died.<\/p>\n Australia has averaged more than three fatal shark attacks a year in recent decades.<\/p>\n There have been nearly 1,300 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which more than 260 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators’ encounters with humans.<\/p>\n Australian scientists believe increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are swaying sharks’ migratory patterns, which may be contributing to a rise in attacks.<\/p>\n