Canberra: A shark fatally mauled a surfer on Tuesday on Australia’s Gold Coast city tourist strip, officials said.
The man, aged in his 50s, was was brought to shore by fellow surfers and lifeguards at popular Greenmount Beach with leg injuries, Queensland state Ambulance Service supervisor William Houghton said.
Paramedics determined he was already dead on the beach, he said. The death is only the second fatal shark attack on the Gold Coast since the city’s 85 beaches were first protected by shark nets and drum lines in 1962.
Shark nets are suspended from floats and run parallel to beaches. Sharks can swim under the nets and around the ends of the nets. No details were immediately available about the shark.
A Senate inquiry in 2017 found that Queensland shark nets create more harm than good. The Senate committee said nets give beachgoers a false sense of security while entangling and killing protected marine species including whales and turtles.
Australia’s last fatal shark attack was north of the Gold Coast near Fraser Island on 4 July. A 36-year-old spear fisherman died hours after he was bitten on a leg.
A 60-year-old surfer was killed by a 3-meter (10-foot) great white shark at an unprotected beach south of the Gold Coast near Kingscliff on 7 June.