{"id":719000,"date":"2026-06-06T12:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719000\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:54:20","slug":"wa-shark-attack-man-dies-after-being-bitten-near-albany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719000\/","title":{"rendered":"WA shark attack; Man dies after being bitten near Albany"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man has died after he was bitten by a suspected 4.5-metre shark<\/a> off the coast of Albany in Western Australia<\/a>\u2019s south.<\/p>\n

Police said the 35-year-old had been spearfishing with family off Michaelmas Island when he was attacked before 11.20am (1.20pm AEST) today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A man has died after he was bitten by a shark off the coast of Albany in Western Australia\u2019s south\u00a09News<\/p>\n

He was taken back to shore by boat where he was met with St John Ambulance WA paramedics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The man, who has not been formally identified, was unable to be revived.<\/p>\n

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier at about midnight, a tagged Great White set off a receiver in Frenchman Bay near to where the spearfisherman was killed.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no indication as yet if this was the same shark that delivered the fatal blow to the fisherman.<\/p>\n

The incident was reported to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).<\/p>\n

Residents have been told to take additional caution in the Michaelmas Island area following the shark attack and adhere to local beach closures.<\/p>\n

WA Premier Roger Cook said he felt \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tragedy and my thoughts are with the victim\u2019s family and friends, as well as the first responders,\u201d Cook said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know members of the local community will wrap their arms around them, and I urge those who are impacted to reach out for support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident comes several weeks after another fatal shark attack off WA\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

Steven Mattaboni died after he was attacked while spearfishing<\/a> near Horseshoe Reef, about one kilometre off the coast of the island near Perth.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old had been in the water with friends when he was bitten on both legs by what authorities believe was a great white shark.<\/p>\n

Last month another man, 39-year-old Michael Jensz<\/a>, was killed by a shark off the coast of Far North Queensland. <\/p>\n

String of shark attacks across Australia<\/p>\n

There have been several shark attacks reported in Australia this year.<\/p>\n

Andre de Ruyter, 27, was\u00a0one of several victims attacked by sharks over the course of 48 hours<\/a>\u00a0in NSW in January.<\/p>\n

He lost a leg in the attack on\u00a0Sydney<\/a>\u2019s Northern Beaches.<\/p>\n

Nico Antic was\u00a0first to be attacked by a suspected bull shark<\/a>\u00a0after jumping off rocks at Neilson Park, near Shark Beach, in Vaucluse on January 18.<\/p>\n

The 12-year-old junior lifesaver later died in hospital.<\/p>\n

Days later, 39-year-old\u00a0Paul Zvirzdinas received minor injuries<\/a>\u00a0after his board and wetsuit were bitten by a shark at Point Plomer near Port Macquarie.<\/p>\n

An 11-year-old boy also\u00a0had a lucky escape at Dee Why Beach<\/a>\u00a0after a shark bit his board but otherwise left him unscathed.<\/p>\n

The attacks were attributed to previous wild weather considered a \u201conce-in-a-500-year event\u201d, which created the perfect environment for bull sharks to lurk in coastal waters around Sydney and wider NSW.<\/p>\n

Back in April\u00a016-year-old surfer Oliver Tokic-Bensley<\/a>\u00a0had a close call with a shark in South Australia.<\/p>\n

He told 9News he was surfing by himself in murky water off the tourist town of Middleton when the shark \u201cgrabbed\u201d his foot and knocked him off his board.<\/p>\n

He was about 100 metres offshore and frantically paddled back to land.<\/p>\n

Back in March, a man was bitten by a shark while snorkelling around the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n

He and two other men were swimming from a private vessel on the western side of Lady Elliot Island in Queensland when the attack took place about 8am.<\/p>\n

He was bitten on the elbow and helped to shore by the other two men.<\/p>\n

Australia heads world table for shark attacks<\/p>\n

Australia<\/a>\u00a0recorded the world\u2019s highest total of fatal shark attacks on humans last year, with more great whites gathering in waters popular with surfers, research released earlier this year found.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0International Shark Attack File released in February<\/a>\u00a0confirmed there were 12 fatalities (nine of which were classified unprovoked) worldwide, with Australia accounting for five.<\/p>\n

Other countries to record deaths last year included the\u00a0US,\u00a0Mozambique<\/a>,\u00a0South Africa<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vanuatu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The global total of 12 fatalities was up from the previous year\u2019s seven.<\/p>\n

There were 65 confirmed unprovoked attacks globally, a jump from the 47 in 2024 and above the five-year average of 61.<\/p>\n

Last year, US waters had the most incidents at 25, with 11 off the coast of Florida.<\/p>\n

Australia was in second spot recording 21 unprovoked attacks.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the\u00a0University of Florida<\/a>\u00a0who drew up the report noted an increase in fatalities from great whites.<\/p>\n

Bigger numbers of the species at \u201caggregation sites\u201d, beaches favoured by surfers, especially in Australia, may be behind this, they suggested.<\/p>\n

The Australian coastline is also home to the bull and tiger sharks, which along with great whites make up the \u201cbig three\u201d predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has died after he was bitten by a suspected 4.5-metre shark off the coast of Albany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-719000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}