ROTTNEST ISLAND, Australia — Police have named the victim of Saturday’s fatal shark attack in Western Australia as American man George Thomas Wainwright.
The 32-year-old US citizen, from Texas, was in Australia on a working visa and had been living for several months in North Beach, a beachside suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
He was killed by what authorities believe was a great white shark, while diving just off Little Armstrong Bay on Rottnest Island, a popular tourist spot not far from the mainland, PerthNow reported.
Police say two of the Texan’s friends aboard a private boat watched in horror as they saw a “flurry of bubbles” in the water, before their friend’s body surfaced a short time later with “obvious traumatic fatal injuries.”
They made a desperate emergency call after retrieving his body from the water and witnessing a shark, which they described as a three-meter (9ft 8in) white pointer.
Police described the injuries sustained by Wainwright as horrific.
Saturday’s deadly attack is the third in just seven weeks off Western Australia and comes only 12 days after Perth businessman Bryn Martin disappeared while swimming at Cottesloe Beach. He was suspected to have been taken by a shark.
The attacks — which are far beyond the state average — prompted authorities to issue a catch-to-kill order just one hour after Wainwright’s death Saturday, the first such order in the history of the state.
“The decision has been made that if we capture the shark we will kill it,” Department of Fisheries regional manager Tony Cappelluti said. “The policy is that if there’s a clear and present danger that we can take a great white.”
Baited traps have now been set up in a bid to capture the shark.
The state government is also considering a shark cull around popular beach areas and introducing aerial patrols at a number of sites.
Sharks are a common feature of Australian waters but fatal attacks are rare, with only 24 recorded deaths in the 20 years up to June 2009, or an average of just 1.2 shark-related deaths per year according to official data, AFP reported.