shark

June 13 (UPI) — A woman is in critical condition after a shark attack at a popular Sydney beach Saturday, and she was saved by a nearby lifeguard.

The 35-year-old woman hasn’t been identified. She had serious bite injuries on a leg and an arm from the morning attack at Coogee Beach, a police statement said. She and two friends were swimming about 100 feet from the shore, when she was bitten, ambulance official Michael Corlis said. Lifeguard Tony Waller said the shark was about 11 feet long.

Lifeguard Charlie Verco told The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney that he saw the shark while he was on his paddleboard.

“I saw the shark come out of the water and just the size of it shocked me,” Verco said. “I kept paddling towards her and the shark took her underwater and I was going, ‘What do I do now?’ A couple of seconds later, she popped up again.”

Verco said the victim was too weak to get onto the paddleboard, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the beach. Other people helped them get to shore.

Ian Ferguson, an off-duty doctor at the beach with his family, said there was a “big cloud of blood in the water.”

Ferguson and other bystanders applied tourniquets and gave first aid to the woman on the beach. Her leg bite was about a foot wide, and her bone was exposed, he told The Telegraph. The wound on her arm was similar.

They got her to a nearby rugby field where she was flown by helicopter to a hospital.

This is the fourth shark attack in Australia in the past five weeks. Three men have been killed by sharks while spearfishing.

On June 6, a man, 35, died after he was bitten while spearfishing near Michaelmas Island on the western coast. A 38-year-old man died after he was bitten by a 13-foot shark on May 16, then a 39-year-old man was killed in Queensland, in the northeast part of the country, on May 24.

In January, a 12-year-old boy died in the hospital after being attacked by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.

Since 1791, when records began, there have been nearly 1,300 shark attacks in Australia, with 260 of them fatal. Australia has averaged two to three fatal shark attacks per year since 2000, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database. There were five last year.

Shark attacks have become more common as water sports like surfing and scuba diving have become more popular.

The man was fishing when he was bitten by a shark, police say.

A man has died after he was bitten by a shark off the south coast of Michaelmas Island in Western Australia.

The 35-year-old was attacked while spearfishing with his family close to the town of Albany, police said.

The man was treated by paramedics but died of his wounds.

Police said a 4.5metre (15ft) shark of an unknown species was spotted by a witness near Michaelmas Island, which does not receive many visitors.

The state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development urged people to take “additional caution” in the area and to stay abreast of shark sightings.

This is the fourth shark killing this year in Australia.

Last month, a man died after being attacked by a great white off Rottnest Island near the city of Perth, and another man died in a shark attack off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.

In January, a 12-year-old boy was killed by a shark in Sydney Harbour.

Australian scientists believe increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are shifting sharks’ migratory patterns, which may be contributing to a rise in attacks.

The majority of shark attacks occur along Australia’s east and southeast coasts, with an average of about 20 incidents recorded each year, according to the Institute of Health and Welfare.

May 24 (UPI) — The second fatal shark attack in less than two weeks in Australia has claimed the life of a 39-year-old man who was out spearfishing with friends at the Great Barrier Reef, authorities said Sunday.

Queensland Police identified the victim as a resident of Mount Sheridan, Australia, a suburb of Cairns, who died from a critical head injury inflicted by a bull shark while boating with three companions at Kennedy Shoal along the Barrier Reef on Saturday.

The fisherman was killed only eight days after a Perth man was fatally attacked by a shark while spearfishing in the water at a tourism hotspot in Western Australia.

Queensland Police Inspector Elaine Burns told reporters during a briefing Sunday the victim was hauled back onto his 23-foot boat by his friends, who then raced to shore in an attempt to save his life.

They were met by first responders at the Hull River boat ramp but it was too late.

“This is a tragic incident for everyone involved, and we will continue to provide support to the family and those who were on board with him,” Burns said, adding that the witnesses were deeply shaken by what they had seen.

“That’s quite a terrifying thing to see happen right in front of you,” she said.

Bob Katter, who represents the far northern Queensland district in Australia’s Parliament, took to social media to decry the latest shark fatality and called for the seaborne predators to be culled.

“This is a completely unnecessary heartbreaking tragedy, and all North Queensland mourns with this family tonight,” he wrote. “We understand there be more clarity over the coming days about what eventuated, but locals have been raising concerns about the exploding shark populations, particularly bull sharks, which are completely out of control, for years.”

Katter cited a local charter boat operator who told him that as they were reeling in a Spanish mackerel, six bull sharks began fighting over it.

“So much for them being a so-called endangered species,” he said, adding, “Another North Queenslander is dead. Another family is shattered. And still the people sitting in cushy air conditioned offices in Brisbane and Canberra think they know better than the people who live and work in these waters.”

But Richard Fitzpatrick, a marine biologist with James Cook University in Cairns, cautioned that the true size of the bull shark population remains unknown.

“We don’t know the population structure for these sharks at all,” he told 7News Australia. “We simply do not know how many are out there,” he added, noting that the school and government partners are only just now about to launch the first comprehensive bull shark population study covering Australia’s entire East Coast.

The pooled data sets will allow researchers to “finally work out what that population structure is.”

The man was rushed to ⁠shore after being bitten on Sunday near ​Kennedy Shoal, but died shortly afterwards.

A man has died after a shark attack off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia, police say.

The man was rushed to ⁠shore after being bitten on Sunday near Kennedy Shoal, a shallow reef about 45km (28 miles) off the coast, a Queensland Police Service spokesperson said.

The man was met by an ambulance but died shortly afterwards, the spokesperson said without identifying him.

According to local media, beaches in the area have been closed while police assess safety conditions.

The incident is the second fatal shark encounter in Australia in a little more than a week.

On May 16, a 38-year-old man died after being bitten by a shark near Perth off the west coast.

The majority of shark attacks occur along Australia’s east and southeast coasts with an average of about 20 incidents recorded each year, according to the Institute of Health and Welfare.