A shark fatally mauls a spearfishing diver off Australia's Rottnest Island, police say

A ferry sails past a closed beach at Vaucluse in Sydney, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, a day after a boy was attacked by a shark. (Sitthixay Ditthavong/AAP Image via AP)

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MELBOURNE, Australia — A shark fatally mauled a diver off an Australian tourist island on Saturday, police said.

The 38-year-old man had been spearfishing with a friend when he was attacked on a coral reef off Rottnest Island near Australia’s southwest coast, Western Australia Police Sergeant Michael Wear said.

The victim was near a dive boat when he was bitten on the legs, Wear said. He was then taken by that boat one kilometre (1,100 yards) to the island, where paramedics could not resuscitate him.

Lifeguards reported a five-metre (16-foot) white shark had been seen in the vicinity before the attack.

The attack was Australia’s first shark fatality since January, when a 12-year-old boy died in a hospital days after he was mauled by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor.

Rottnest Island’s last fatal shark attack was in 2011, in which a 32-year-old diver died.

Australia has averaged more than three fatal shark attacks a year in recent decades.

The Associated Press