Markus Groh, 49, from Austria, died after being bitten during a baited shark dive in the Bahamas.
The lawyer from Vienna, described as an avid diver, was on a six-day trip with other Austrians aboard the Riviera Beach, Florida-based Shear Water, run by Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, which specialises in shark-diving excursions.
The holiday had been marketed as a trip seeking out tiger and hammerhead sharks.
The fatal dive occurred off Great Isaac Cay, the divers making an open-water dive to encounter sharks drawn in by fish bait.
According to some reports, it was a bull shark that attacked Groh, biting him on a leg, perhaps because of a piece of bait getting very close to his body. It was also reported that the fatal injury may have been a pulmonary embolism from a rapid ascent, rather than the bite itself.
A mayday call was put out and Groh, in a critical condition, was evacuated by helicopter to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.
While baited shark dives are legal in the Bahamas, they were banned in Florida in 2001. Concerns ranged from diving risks to perceived effects on shark behaviour which, it was thought, could increase risk to other water-users off popular beaches.
* Fatal shark attacks worldwide fell to their lowest level for 20 years in 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File. Only one death was recorded, the lowest figure since 1987, when there were no fatalities.
The number of shark attacks in general rose slightly over the previous year, however, with 71 in 2007 compared with 63 in 2006. Of the 71, 50 occurred off US states, with 32 of these in Florida waters - a notable jump from 23 in 2006.
Twelve attacks were recorded in Australia, the remaining nine being split amongst South Africa, New Caledonia, Fiji, Ecuador, Mexico and New Zealand.
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