The group were experienced fishermen, Wear said. The friends had taken two boats out for the day and performed CPR on the 38-year-old as the boats raced back to the nearest jetty, where paramedics and a rescue helicopter were waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Police] air wing rode over the top and they actually dropped an officer off from the chopper on shore to give us a hand,\u201d Wear said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an all-agencies effort to get everyone involved in the best way we could possibly do for the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old victim lived in Perth\u2019s northern suburbs.<\/p>\n
The attack happened at around 10am about 1km off the northwest tip of the hugely popular tourist island, which itself is 18km west of the West Australian coastline.<\/p>\n
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said the great white shark was about 4m long, but Surf Life Saving West Australia said a 5m great white was spotted in the same area later on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Wear said the man was on the surface of the water spearfishing 20m from his boat and about 1km offshore when the shark emerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe injuries are quite horrific and with respect to the family, we won\u2019t go any further today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, a very confronting scene. Certainly quite horrific scenes for all involved and all the emergency services that were there did a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rescue helicopter was sent to the scene, but the injured man was unable to be revived by paramedics.<\/p>\n
Witness Jarrad Young was visiting Rottnest for a wedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really confronting, I think everyone was hoping he was okay but it didn\u2019t look too good in the end, which is unfortunate,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it is a bit of a sad day, no one really wants to see that on the island. Everyone just wants to come and enjoy the beaches and the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has urged those on Rottnest Island to take extra care in the water.<\/p>\n
The attack has sent shock waves through the community, with West Australia Premier Roger Cook among those reacting to the horror, which he described as \u201cdeeply distressing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a devastating time for all involved,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tragedy that will be felt by all Western Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group were experienced fishermen, Wear said. The friends had taken two boats out for the day and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5350,74,28358,89,2937,1135,46919,11586,2842,5830,12632,16773,42,31144,2514,89404,3242,5158,43,6662,221015,675,10903,11590,7971,221014,165,40,38,41,39,1803,3807,16550],"class_list":["post-431719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-5350","tag-after","tag-alongside","tag-attack","tag-aussie","tag-australian","tag-bitten","tag-coast","tag-experienced","tag-fought","tag-friend","tag-great","tag-headlines","tag-horrific","tag-island","tag-kills","tag-large","tag-man","tag-news","tag-off","tag-paramedics","tag-police","tag-popular","tag-save","tag-shark","tag-spearfishermen","tag-their","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-update","tag-west","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}