Tasmania: Daughter Watches As Dad Fatally Injured In Shark Attack [Video]
A man and his adult daughter were diving for scallops off the coast of Orford in Tasmania, Australia Saturday when he was fatally injured in a shark attack. His daughter witnessed the deeply traumatizing attack.
As reported in the Independent, the man, aged in his 40s, has not yet been named. He and his daughter went out in a dinghy, diving for scallops. His daughter returned to the boat and later her father failed to reappear.
The daughter, in her 20s, dived again to look for her father and witnessed the moment when he was attacked by a “very large” shark. Police believe the incident was a great white shark attack.
The daughter immediately returned to the boat and raised a flare to attract help, but regrettably when her father was brought to the surface it was found that he had been fatally injured in the shark attack.
Tasmania Shark Attack: Daughter Sees Dad Die http://t.co/oeKZofjYbw
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 25, 2015
Inspector David Wiss from the local police said the man was diving with his adult daughter when the incident happened. He told the media that when they went into the water they collected a number of scallops.
It was his understanding that the daughter returned to the boat and her father dived to get more scallops and did not return to the surface. He said that this was a “deeply traumatic incident for the daughter.”
A 15-foot great white shark had been spotted in the area Friday, according to government ranger Peter Lingard, and it is believed it may have been responsible for the fatal shark attack.
Dad killed by ‘great white shark’ in front of terrified daughter while diving for scallops http://t.co/NKH05B0qQr pic.twitter.com/ybMjw0rbBx — Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) July 25, 2015
According to CTV News, the last fatal shark attack of the coast of Australia happened in February when a Japanese tourist, Tadashi Nakahari, 41, lost both his legs to a 10 to 13-foot great white shark while surfing in Ballina. That shark attack occurred approximately 1,000 miles north of Saturday’s attack.
The attack coincided with Australian professional surfer Mick Fanning’s first return to the water after he fought off a great white shark during the World Surf League competition in South Africa last weekend, an attack which he survived unscathed.
Fanning posted an image of himself looking out to sea on Instagram with the notation, “First surf back. Feels so good.”
https://instagram.com/p/5iOTbZHEtf/?taken-by=mfanno
While sharks are a common sight off Australia’s coasts, fatal attacks are reportedly rare with the country averaging less than two deadly shark attacks per year.
[Image: Great white shark CC BY-NC 2.0 kqedquest]
