A 38-year-old man was killed by a great white shark Saturday off the popular tourist destination of Rottnest Island, near Perth, Western Australia. Police said the attack occurred just before 10 a.m. local time, and the man could not be revived.
The state's Department of Primary Industries confirmed the shark, measuring about 4 meters long, was a great white. Authorities urged the public to take additional caution in the area.
This is the first fatal shark attack in Western Australia since March of last year, when a surfer was mauled off a remote beach. According to a database tracking human-shark encounters, there have been nearly 1,300 incidents across Australia since 1791, with over 260 fatalities.
The most recent fatal attack prior to this was a 12-year-old boy killed in Sydney Harbour in January. That attack, part of a cluster of four incidents in two days, led to the closure of dozens of Sydney beaches.
Australian scientists suggest that increasingly crowded waters and rising ocean temperatures are shifting shark migratory patterns, potentially contributing to the increase in attacks.