Some tragic news this morning, after an Aussie was killed by a shark while holidaying in New Caledonia – the second fatal attack near the archipelago in the last six months.
The 50-year-old man, from Fremantle in WA, was kitesurfing when he fell into the water off the northern port of Koumac and was attacked by an unidentified but reportedly very large shark, sustaining massive thigh injuries.
He was reportedly on a catamaran with a group of others, who rushed to deliver first aid, but went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead just over an hour later.
“He suffered a deep bite to the thigh from a big shark,” said Nicolas Renaud, head of the island’s marine rescue coordination centre.
“We don’t know for the moment what species it was.”
It’s the second fatal shark attack off New Caledonia in the past 6 months and the third time a kitesurfer has been a victim, though the two other kitesurfing attacks weren’t fatal.
Theories as to the increased number in attacks mostly lead back to global warming, with experts hypothesising rising water temperatures are causing sharks to charge their habits.
Australian consular officials are providing the man’s family with support.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Getty / George Rose.
