An Australian teenager was attacked by a shark off the country’s northeast coast on Monday, and rescuers confirmed that the young man died before he even reached the shore.
The attack transpired on a reef off Port Douglas, which is located in far north Queensland, according to the Guardian . The victim has been identified as 18-year-old Daniel Smith, of Mossman.
Shark attack: Daniel Smith, 18, killed off Port Douglas in Queensland http://t.co/XUypyMPIe7 pic.twitter.com/zbItvmLsiO
— Carlos Gavina (@CGShark) December 15, 2014
Smith was fishing with friends on a private boat off Rudder Reef around 11 a.m. when he was attacked by the shark, the ABC reports, suffering wounds to his leg and arm. Emergency first aid was provided by the young man’s friends, but Cairns Queensland Ambulance spokesman Greg Thiedecke observed that it was a two hour journey by boat from the reef to shore.
“It does take a while for people to get back in there,” he said. “When they arrived, the people [on the boat] were still doing CPR on him, trying to save him. We did have Mossman hospital on stand-by with a doctor… but unfortunately when we arrived, he was well and truly passed.”
A Teenage Australian Was Killed In A Shark Attack While Fishing In Far North Queensland http://t.co/0Tm9W5cF0L pic.twitter.com/koa6dQALSj
— John McQueen (@jomacbub) December 15, 2014
It is unclear as yet what species of shark was involved in the attack, but Thiedecke noted that Smith’s wounds covered his right upper leg into his groin and his right upper arm.
“It would be speculating but (there are) a lot of large blood vessels in the groin area, so for him to go into cardiac arrest that quickly would be probably blood loss,” he observed. “If you lose all your blood, you can’t live.”
Day on the reef ends in tragedy. 18 year old Daniel Smith dies after a shark attack. @9NewsBrisbane pic.twitter.com/2pDB0E7mub
— Jess Millward (@JessMillward9) December 15, 2014
Though Mr. Thiedecke noted that shark attacks in the region are rare, Smith’s encounter is not the first fatal run-in with a shark to occur in Australian waters this year. As the Inquisitr previously reported, a swimmer was killed over the summer at Byron Bay, New South Wales, after he was attacked by a white shark. Though shark attacks are usually limited to a single strike, observers in Byron Bay were astonished to see the shark return a second time.
Rudder Reef is not a common spot for dive tourism operators, though it is popular with spearfishermen. Smith’s fatal encounter took place almost a decade to the day after another fatal shark attack at nearby Opal Reef.
[Image via Carfaq.org ]
