{"id":5523,"date":"2018-11-06T10:38:49","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T06:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2018-11-06T10:38:49","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T06:38:49","slug":"australian-man-killed-in-fatal-shark-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/11\/06\/australian-man-killed-in-fatal-shark-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian man killed in fatal shark attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Australian man has died after being attacked by a shark at a popular tourist spot in Queensland.<\/p>\n

The location – Cid Harbour in the Whitsunday Islands – was also the scene of two non-fatal shark attacks in September.<\/p>\n

Police said the latest victim, 33, had been swimming with friends when the attack happened on Monday.<\/p>\n

He was pulled from the water with leg and arm injuries and later died in hospital, authorities said.<\/p>\n

“He had suffered very serious bites, significant blood loss as well as cardiac arrest,” said Ben McCauley from Central Queensland Rescue.<\/p>\n

In September, a 12-year-old girl and a 46-year-old woman were mauled in separate attacks at Cid Harbour within a 24-hour period. The girl later had a leg amputated.<\/p>\n

Excluding Monday’s incident, unprovoked shark attacks have killed one person and injured 16 others in Australia this year,\u00a0according to the Australian Shark Attack File.<\/p>\n

Why has this spot seen three attacks?<\/h2>\n

There is insufficient evidence to explain it, say shark researchers.<\/p>\n

Prof Colin Simpfendorfer, from James Cook University, said shark attacks were “extremely rare” in the Whitsundays – an area popular for sailing and water activities.<\/p>\n

He said sharks could be drawn by fishing activity or dirty water, but no theories had “so far been supported by real substantial information”.<\/p>\n

Prof Simpfendorfer noted, however, that it was not unusual to see “clusters” of attacks in one area.<\/p>\n

\"Map\"<\/span><\/figure>\n

“We see this pattern time and time again – all around the world – and we don’t really understand why it is,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s just a period of time when conditions are such that it maybe causes attacks to be more frequent.”<\/p>\n

He also noted that contrary to popular assumptions, sharks typically avoided places with lots of swimmers.<\/p>\n

Can attacks be prevented?<\/h2>\n

Authorities responded to the incidents in September by culling six sharks in the area and installing drum lines – baited hooks suspended underwater – for a week.<\/p>\n

Now, some have called for further action – but it is a contentious debate.<\/p>\n

A local lawmarker, Jason Costigan, has described the absence of permanent drum lines as “madness”.<\/p>\n

But Prof Simpfendorfer said it was debatable whether drum lines and nets were effective in stopping attacks. Such measures also harmed other marine life, he added.<\/p>\n

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“There will always be sharks in these sorts of spaces, so the important thing is for people to educate themselves on how to minimise the risk,” he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the latest attack had taken place at dusk, a period known to be more dangerous because sharks can be more active.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Australian man has died after being attacked by a shark at a popular tourist spot in Queensland. The location – Cid Harbour in the Whitsunday Islands – was also the scene of two non-fatal shark attacks in September. Police said the latest victim, 33, had been swimming with friends when the attack happened on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5528,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions\/5528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}