{"id":27286,"date":"2026-06-09T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27286\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:04:15","slug":"albany-community-grapples-with-fatal-shark-attack-that-claimed-35yo-resident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27286\/","title":{"rendered":"Albany community grapples with fatal shark attack that claimed 35yo resident"},"content":{"rendered":"

The regional city of Albany is mourning the loss of a resident in a shark attack, with community leaders saying it will take time to heal.<\/p>\n

Daniel Turpin had been spearfishing with family near Michaelmas Island on Saturday morning when the attack happened.<\/p>\n

Albany mayor Greg Stocks said the 35-year-old was a well-respected member of the community and his wife was a council employee.<\/p>\n

“For the community of Albany that hits home pretty hard because whilst we’re a city there’s one degree of separation really,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Nearly everybody would know someone who knows someone from the Turpin family.”<\/p>\n

Mr Stocks paid tribute to the family members who were out on the boat with Mr Turpin at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Greg Stocks says he would not be drawn on the issue of a shark cull. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

“My understanding is that it was Daniel’s father and a 14-year-old nephew were on the boat, and the nephew was driving the boat while Wayne was attending to Daniel,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So incredible, to be honest, that a 14-year-old was able to get himself together to assist and get Daniel to port as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

Resident Graeme Peirce, who is the husband of an ABC reporter, witnessed Mr Turpin being rushed back to the Albany marina.<\/p>\n

Despite efforts from first responders, Mr Turpin was unable to be revived.<\/p>\n

“The fishing boat came at speed into the marina and were met by police and paramedics there,” Mr Peirce said.<\/p>\n

“An exceptional job was done by police and paramedics to manage this incident and console the members in such a traumatic experience.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Graeme Peirce saw the boat with an injured Daniel Turpin come into the Albany marina. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Great Southern Police Superintendent Jon Munday said it was an incredibly challenging day for those on the boat with Mr Turpin and first responders.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s just a really tough job to be doing, any of the first responders, emergency services,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We really need to look out for them.”<\/p>\n

Safety in the water<\/p>\n

It is the third shark attack in Australia in the past four weeks.<\/p>\n

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

In late May, 39-year-old spearfisherman Michael Jensz died when he was attacked by a shark off the Far North Queensland coast.<\/p>\n

Albany MP Albany Scott Leary has said selective culling might be a solution.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scott Leary says the science behind selective shark culling should be looked at. (ABC Great Southern: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

Marc Muscat’s son Jay died in 2014 at the age of 17, after being bitten on the leg by a shark at Cheynes Beach, near Albany.<\/p>\n

Mr Muscat said he did not think control measures for sharks would have an impact.<\/p>\n

“They live in the water, whether they cull them all or not, it’s not going to bring my son back, so it doesn’t concern me,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re not going to be able to cull them all.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marc Muscat says a shark cull will not bring back his son. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Australian Underwater Federation president Graham Henderson said now was not the time to consider a shark cull, but there needs to be more of a focus on the safety of recreational spearfishers.<\/p>\n

“We’re calling all our people together in a week’s time to have another look at our code of conduct,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We need to actually make the general public and the recreational divers more aware of what things they can do to mitigate the risks of shark attack.”<\/p>\n

Albany residents like Joan Brudescio were not in favour of the cull.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joan Brudescio says the ocean is the shark’s habitat and we should not cull them. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

“People must be aware about the places where they’re going, because sharks they’re in their own habitat there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s much better we are aware anytime we are going in there and then monitor where they are.”<\/p>\n

Shark researcher Daryl McPhee from Bond University said the WA government should investigate the use of SMART drum lines.<\/p>\n

Daniel Turpin named as diver killed in Albany shark attack<\/a><\/p>\n

The family of a 35-year-old diver who died after being bitten by a shark has described him as “an adored husband, son, brother and uncle who had a lifelong love and deep respect for the ocean”.<\/p>\n

“They have been trialled in Western Australia, but the technology and understanding of them has improved significantly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re a very significant parts of shark bite mitigation in Queensland and New South Wales.<\/p>\n

“A SMART drum line is a baited hook, which has a trigger on it which alerts somebody back on land that a shark has been captured and allows a contractor to get to that shark when it’s alive to move it offshore and tag it.”<\/p>\n

WA Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis said there was no evidence to support a cull close to shore and she would be meeting with the spearfishing community.<\/p>\n

\"Fisheries<\/p>\n

Jackie Jarvis says the government will not be introducing a shark cull. (ABC Great Southern: Kate Forrester)<\/p>\n

“We have a world-class shark tagging program and obviously electronic monitoring that will alert people when those tagged sharks are in the area,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Our primary focus is about having information near real-time data reporting to allow people to make informed decisions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The regional city of Albany is mourning the loss of a resident in a shark attack, with community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,25226,21,25228,25222,25224,12166,25225,25227,4968,17794,25223,13423,464],"class_list":["post-27286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australias-underwater-federation","tag-austrlia","tag-bond-university","tag-daniel-turpin","tag-diver","tag-jackie-jarvis","tag-michaelmas-island","tag-scott-leary","tag-shark-attack","tag-shark-cull","tag-shark-fatality","tag-spearfishing","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27286","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=27286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}