{"id":340408,"date":"2026-05-25T14:18:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T08:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=340408"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:18:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T08:48:46","slug":"man-killed-after-shark-bit-him-on-the-top-at-australias-great-barrier-reef-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/man-killed-after-shark-bit-him-on-the-top-at-australias-great-barrier-reef-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Man killed after shark bit him on the top at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s the second fatal shark attack in only every week (Picture: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A spearfisher has been fatally mauled on the\u00a0Great\u00a0Barrier\u00a0Reef\u00a0in Australia\u2019s second deadly shark attack in only over every week, police said.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old man was with three friends diving and fishing from a ship at Kennedy Shoal off the Queensland state coast, south of Cairns, on Sunday when he was attacked.<\/p>\n

Police Inspector Elaine Burns said: \u2018The person had been spearfishing when he was attacked and died from a critical head injury.\u2019<\/p>\n

The unnamed victim, who lived in Cairns, was brought by boat to the town of Hull Heads, where paramedics were waiting.<\/p>\n

He had \u2018sustained injuries not compatible with life\u2019, an ambulance service statement said.<\/p>\n

Kennedy Shoal is a shallow coral\u00a0reef\u00a0popular with recreational fishers. Divers are also drawn to the Lady Bowen, a Nineteenth-century shipwreck.<\/p>\n

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Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kennedy Shoal is popular with spearfishers (Picture: Metro)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bull sharks had been seen in the world before the attack, in line with reports.<\/p>\n

A shark fatally mauled spearfisher Steve Mattabonni on May 16 at a coral\u00a0reef\u00a0off Rottnest Island, near the south-west coast of Western Australia.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Perth resident was taken by boat to the island, where paramedics were unable to resuscitate him.<\/p>\n

It is assumed the attack was carried out by a 16ft white shark.<\/p>\n

The newest death is Australia\u2019s third shark fatality in 2026. Nico Antic, 12, died in hospital days after he was attacked by a suspected bull shark off a Sydney beach on January 18.<\/p>\n

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Steve Mattabonni was rushed to hospital but couldn’t be saved (Picture: Social Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nico suffered serious injuries to each of his legs and was dragged out of the water and onto some nearby rocks by other children, but sadly died.<\/p>\n

His family said: \u2018Nico was a completely happy, friendly, and sporty young boy with essentially the most kind and generous spirit. He was all the time vigorous and that\u2019s how we\u2019ll remember him.<\/p>\n

\u2018We would really like to sincerely thank the primary responders and the teams at Sydney Children\u2019s Hospital, Randwick, for all the pieces they did to look after Nico.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n


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It\u2019s the second fatal shark attack in only every week (Picture: AP) A spearfisher has been fatally mauled on the\u00a0Great\u00a0Barrier\u00a0Reef\u00a0in Australia\u2019s second deadly shark attack in only over every week, police said. The 39-year-old man was with three friends diving and fishing from a ship at Kennedy Shoal off the Queensland state coast, south of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[22304,10975,11301,380,3026,1054,395,6645,5304,813],"class_list":["post-340408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-australias","tag-barrier","tag-bit","tag-great","tag-killed","tag-man","tag-news","tag-reef","tag-shark","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340411,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340408\/revisions\/340411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}