Hunt on for WA killer shark

14 Jul 2012, 6:37 pm   -   Source: AAP
WA police are searching for the remains of a male surfer killed in a shark attack. (AAP)

WA police are searching for the remains of a male surfer killed in a shark attack. (AAP)

A massive white shark that killed a 24-year-old Perth man is to be culled if it is caught by fisheries officers.

Attempts are being made to catch and cull the "massive" white shark that killed a male surfer south of Wedge Island in Western Australia.

The fatal attack occurred at 9am (WST), 4km south of the island, which is a family holiday hotspot about 160km north of Perth.

The victim, whose identity is yet to be released, was surfing about 200 metres off an isolated beach, the WA Department of Fisheries said.

Police said the victim was 24 years old and from Perth.

They were yet to speak with the victim's family.

Shark Response Unit spokesman Tony Cappelluti said patrol vessels were on the scene and officers had ordered shark capture gear to be set.

"When last seen the shark was heading offshore, but we have placed baited lines in the water near the attack site, in an attempt to catch the shark should it return to the location or pose a threat in the area," Mr Cappelluti said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses told police they had seen the shark swim out to deeper water after the attack and there had been no further sightings.

The shark capture lines would remain in the water for the rest of the day and a decision would be made before nightfall whether to remove the gear, Mr Cappelluti said.

"Any further use would be dependent on any new shark sightings, operational assessments and weather conditions," he said.

"The local shire has closed beaches in the area and will reassess that decision at some stage tomorrow, depending on whether there are further sightings or not."

A jet skier tried to retrieve the body when it was being circled by the "massive" shark.

"There was just blood everywhere," he told the ABC.

"I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to throw me off.

"I did another loop and when I came back to get the body, the shark took it."

It is the fifth fatal shark attack off the WA coast in the past 12 months.

In April, WA Fisheries senior shark research scientist Rory McAuley said the state was the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks.

Mr McAuley said there had been an "unprecedented" number of fatal shark attacks off WA in the past two years.

A world-first acoustic tagging program introduced last year has shown sharks are lingering off the metropolitan coast for months at a time.

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