A 40-year-old man was killed by a shark while fishing with his family near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, officials and local media reported. The incident happened on Saturday afternoon near Humpy Island, Australia.
“The man was fishing with family members when he was bitten by a shark,” Australia’s Queensland state police said in a statement. Emergency services confirmed the shark bit the man on the neck, causing life-threatening injuries. He died about an hour and a half later at the scene.
Local media identified the victim as Luke Walford, a youth pastor at the Cathedral of Praise church in Rockhampton, Queensland. Police could not confirm if he was spearfishing at the time, though social media photos from 2021 show him holding large fish while wearing a wetsuit on a boat.
A Queensland ambulance spokeswoman told news agency AFP that Walford died from a “significant life-threatening wound to his neck.”
Humpy Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef’s Keppel Bay Islands National Park and is known for camping, diving, and snorkeling.
The last fatal shark attack in Australia occurred in December 2023, when a 15-year-old boy was killed by a suspected great white shark in South Australia. According to a national database, Australia has recorded over 1,200 shark incidents since 1791, with more than 250 fatalities. Most serious shark bites involve white sharks, bull sharks, and tiger sharks.
