According to Queensland state’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Australian victim, whose name has not been released, was an employee of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
“Once again a family out there is grieving for a young man who tragically has lost his life in this horrific shark attack,” Palaszczuk told reporters on Tuesday, AP reported.
The man was attacked Monday near North West Island while returning to a vessel chartered by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. He suffered injuries to his leg and arm and died a few hours later at a hospital.
According to Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson, the victim was doing maintenance work before he was mauled and was the last person to get out of the water before the attack.
“At the end of the day there were four people swimming off the back of a boat, cooling down after a day’s work,” he told reporters.
There have been at least three other shark attacks in the Great Barrier Reef over the last year and a half, according to AP. Two British backpackers were attacked by a shark last October while snorkeling at Hook Island, one of the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland. One of the victims lost his foot.
In March 2019, a 25-year-old man was attacked by a shark at Hardy Reef off the Whitsundays coast and suffered thigh injuries. Lastly, 33-year-old Daniel Christidis was killed by a shark in November 2018 in Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.
