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Shark kills snorkeller
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A snorkeller died instantly on 19 March when he was severely bitten by a large shark off the coast of Western Australia. The attack was thought to have been carried out by a great white or a tiger shark.
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Geoffrey Brazier was one of a small group snorkelling from a 24m luxury charter catamaran, moored at Wreck Point in the Abrolhos Islands, 250 miles north of Perth. Brazier, who was one of the boat's crew members, was attacked by a shark estimated by witnesses to be at least 6m long.
The police inspector investigating the incident is reported to have said: 'The 26-year-old man was bitten in half and death seemed to be instantaneous.' According to a Department of Fisheries regional manager, counselling support has been arranged for those who witnessed the violent attack.
Two patrol boats have been used in a search for Brazier's remains, none of which has been recovered.
Last December an 18-year-old surfer was killed by a great white shark off Adelaide. A week before that, a 38-year-old man was killed by a shark while spearfishing on the Great Barrier Reef. And last July, a pair of sharks killed a 29-year-old surfer off Perth.
*The Global Shark Attack File's annual report went online recently. Its statistics for 2004 listed 73 attack incidents around the world, involving anything from a scratch to a fatality.
There were eleven deaths in the following countries: Australia (4), the USA (2), South Africa (2), Brazil (1), Tonga (1) and Egypt (1).
In the most attack-associated regions - namely the USA, South Africa and Australia - millions of people enter the sea each year, many of them on a host of occasions. The chances of being attacked by a shark therefore continue to be infinitesimally slim.
Of those people unlucky enough to be attacked by a shark, the Attack File's 2004 stats indicate, as in years past, that the groups most at risk are surfers (36%), swimmers and waders (27%) and spearfishing snorkellers or divers (12%).
The only oddity is that, although it is thought that those at the surface are generally more at risk than submerged divers, the stats list scuba attacks at 5% while snorkellers are even lower, at 3%. It is possible, however, that a number of the attacks listed as swimming incidents involved snorkelling.
Related links
Global Shark Attack File
Diver magazine marine life features
Spearfishing diver killed by shark
Diver killed by shark in California
Diver killed by shark
Fatal shark attack at Sharm
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