A man spearfishing with friends was killed by a shark on the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday, police said, in Australia's second fatal shark attack in just over a week.

The 39-year-old man was with three friends diving from a boat at Kennedy Shoal off the Queensland state coast south of Cairns when he was attacked, Police Inspector Elaine Burns said.

"The man had been spearfishing when he was attacked and died from a critical head injury," Burns told reporters.

Police said the man who pulled the victim from the water was "pretty close" to the incident and witnessed the attack, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. people were on board the boat

"I would assume they would be pretty traumatized, that's quite a terrifying thing to see happen right in front of you," Burns said.

The unidentified victim, a Cairns resident, was brought by boat around noon to the tourist town of Hull Heads where paramedics were waiting. He had "sustained injuries not compatible with life," an ambulance service statement said.

Kennedy Shoal is a shallow coral reef popular with recreational fishers. Divers are also attracted to the Lady Bowen, a 19th century shipwreck.

Police said the species of shark involved in the attack was unknown at this stage, but fishers reported bull sharks had been seen in the area before the attack.

"Sharks are competing with the fishermen"
Gererd Pike of Hooked Up Fishing said his fishing charter boat was six miles from Kennedy Shoal on Sunday and he had seen large numbers of "vicious, unpredictable" bull sharks in the area.

"We were chasing Spanish mackerel and had one eaten by a pack of six of them, four metres off the edge of the boat," he told AFP.

"We were not going to dip toes in the water," he added.

Pike said he heard the emergency services call in the incident over his boat's radio.

Another boat charter operator with a vessel nearby said shark attacks in the area were rare, although bull sharks and tiger sharks were found there.

"It is not very common at all. It is one of those unfortunate things," Rob Parsonage, of Mission Beach Dive, told AFP.

"The sharks are competing with the fishermen," he said.

Sunday's fatal shark attack is the third in Australia this year, and comes a week after a shark fatally mauled spearfisher Steve Mattabonni at a coral reef off Rottnest Island near the southwest coast of Western Australia state. Mattabonni was with friends who "witnessed the horrific event," Western Australia Police Sergeant Michael Wear said.

The 38-year-old Perth resident was taken by boat to the holiday island where paramedics were unable to resuscitate him.

A 16-foot white shark was suspected.

Australia has averaged more than three fatal shark attacks a year in recent decades. The latest death is Australia's third shark fatality for 2026.

Nico Antic, 12, died in a hospital days after he was attacked by a suspected bull shark off a Sydney beach on Jan. 18. The attack that killed the boy was one of four recorded in the span of two days, which prompted officials to close dozens of the city's beaches.

In November, a shark killed a woman and seriously wounded a man at a national park beach on Australia's east coast in a rare instance of the predator attacking two people.

There have been nearly 1,300 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which more than 260 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators' encounters with humans.

Australian scientists believe increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are swaying sharks' migratory patterns, which may be contributing to a rise in attacks.

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