Diver attacked by shark near Great Barrier Reef
A 55-year-old boat skipper from Cairns had to wait more than eight hours for a medical team and helicopter to reach him after being mauled by a shark while freediving near Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef yesterday.
The bull shark, apparently four metres long, repeatedly bit him causing “serious lacerations” to his left arm and abdomen.
The man, who was diving around 60 nautical miles east of Murray Island when he was mauled, is reported to have been 15 metres underwater at the time of the attack. Despite his injuries, the diver managed to swim back to his charter boat. Other crew members helped him back on board the large fishing vessel around 12:40pm, where a trained medic performed first aid to slow the bleeding.
A paramedic said it took five hours to get the man back to a small medical clinic on Murray Island.
“There’s no doctor there and he is being treated by a nurse who has only been on the island for two weeks. His condition is listed as stable,” the paramedic said.
He then had to wait a further three hours for a rescue helicopter to arrive from Horn Island, after an early attempt was called off due to torrential rain.
The helicopter eventually arrived at Murray Island just after 9:00pm to take the patient to Thursday Island Hospital, which took another three hours.
The man eventually went in for surgery just after midnight. He told paramedics that it was the second time he’d been attacked by a shark while diving.
