SYDNEY, Oct 8 — A commercial diver suffered “substantial” injuries after being attacked by a shark off remote Western Australia, officials said today.
The man, reportedly aged 55, was with a diving crew from Southern Wild Abalone when the shark struck off Poison Creek beach, east of the town of Esperance.
“Obviously, there has been some substantial injuries (as) with any encounter with a shark, but at this stage (the details are) still quite sketchy,” the firm’s owner Marcus Tromp told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I understood that he was still conscious and in good hands as far as first aid goes,” he added.
Another diver was in the area and came to assist the injured man's crew with first aid before he was transported to shore for treatment, Tromp said.
The ruggedness and remoteness of the area, in a wilderness park and accessible only by four-wheel drive, complicated his retrieval and transport by ambulance to Esperance, 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the dive site.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service said it had dispatched a plane to collect the man from Esperance and take him to Perth for treatment.
It is the first shark attack reported in Australia since December 2012, when a paddle-boarder lost a finger and suffered a serious bite to his thigh at Diamond Head north of Sydney.
There has not been a fatality from a shark attack since July 2012, when a surfer was bitten in half off Western Australia, capping an unprecedented spate of five deadly attacks by the marine predators that sparked calls for a cull.
Local marine scientists have described Australia's west coast as the deadliest shark attack zone in the world, and a tagging and tracking programme has been launched in a bid to limit fatalities.
Sharks are common in Australian waters but deadly attacks are rare, with only one of the average 15 incidents a year typically proving fatal. — AFP
