{"id":26042,"date":"2026-06-06T13:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/26042\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:56:09","slug":"diver-dies-after-attack-by-suspected-4-5m-shark-off-albany-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/26042\/","title":{"rendered":"Diver dies after attack by suspected 4.5m shark off Albany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: This story contains images that some readers may find distressing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A male diver has died after he was bitten by a suspected 4.5-metre shark off the southern West Australian coast, WA police have confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old man was taken by boat to shore after emergency services responded to reports of a\u00a0shark\u00a0attack at 11:25am, local time, on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"police<\/p>\n

WA police say the diver was spearfishing with family off Michaelmas Island.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

The man was spearfishing with family off Michaelmas Island, near Albany, when he was attacked, according to police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He was conveyed back to shore by boat where he was met by SJA [St John Ambulance] WA paramedics,” WA police said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

The man was transported by boat to Albany Waterfront Marina, where he was met by paramedics. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“Sadly, he was unable to be revived.<\/p>\n

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

Albany local Grant Cavanagh said he was surprised to hear about the attack.<\/p>\n

“Because we don’t really get that many shark attacks down here,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Albany local Grant Cavanagh says the attack is surprising. (ABC News: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

But Mr Cavanagh said he did not believe it would scare people out of the water.<\/p>\n

“Just like motor cars, someone gets killed in a car accident, you don’t stop driving. Same principle,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"commercial<\/p>\n

Gregory Sharp says there has been an increase in shark activity in the area in recent weeks. (ABC News: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Commercial fisherman Gregory Sharp said there had been an increase in shark activity in the area in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

“We do see an increase in larger sharks this time of the year, particularly chasing the sardine and the salmon along the coast, which is quite normal,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[And] particularly in areas where there’s a lot of seals, and the island area in King George Sound is renowned for seals.”<\/p>\n

\"police<\/p>\n

Albany police are collecting evidence at the scene for investigation.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

But the expectation of more sharks has done little to quell the shock of the community.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the sort of thing that happens every day of the week \u2026 everybody’s stunned at what’s actually happened,” Mr Sharp said.<\/p>\n

‘A tragedy’<\/p>\n

WA Premier Roger Cook said he was “deeply saddened to hear of this morning’s fatal shark attack”.<\/p>\n

“This is a tragedy and my thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends, as well as the first responders.”<\/p>\n

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) said it was assisting WA Police and local authorities with the serious shark incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michaelmas Island is about 13 kilometres from the nearest stretch of Albany coastline and about a five-hour drive from Perth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Michaelmas Island sits in King George Sound off Albany. (ABC Great Southern: John Dobson\u00a0)<\/p>\n

DPIRD has urged people in the area to report to Water Police on 9442 8600 if they see a shark.<\/p>\n

Second fatal shark attack in four weeks<\/p>\n

This is the second fatal shark attack in WA in the past four weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"closure<\/p>\n

A ramp closure sign is up at the scene of Saturday’s incident.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

On May 16, a 38-year-old Perth man, Steven Mattaboni, was killed in a shark attack<\/a> when he was spearfishing with three friends off Rottnest Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Mattaboni was bitten on the legs by a four-metre shark just before 10am that day at Horseshoe Reef.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: This story contains images that some readers may find distressing.\u00a0 A male diver has died after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10761,20545,22,21,1610,1612,12243,1611,1613,463,1047,13877,4968,464],"class_list":["post-26042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-accident","tag-albany","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-breaking-news","tag-emergency-services","tag-incident","tag-perth-breaking-news","tag-perth-emergency","tag-perth-news","tag-police","tag-shark","tag-shark-attack","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}