Water Police in the Whitsunday Islands are conducting patrols of Cid Harbour today to provide reassurance to the boating community and tourists after another swimmer was fatally attacked by a shark.
The 33-year-old was part of a group of ten people on a 40 foot sailing boat which left Airlie Beach from Amity Point.
Police say when the vessel arrived in Cid Harbour, the man and another woman were taking turns paddle boarding in the water.
When the man got off the paddle boat and into the water, he was bitten by the shark, whose species is still unknown.
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He was pulled onto a boat and treated by a paramedic from Hamilton Island, two-off duty doctors and an emergency department nurse from nearby vessels.
He was resuscitated twice before being airlifted to Mackay Hospital in a critical condition with bites to his left thigh, right calf and left wrist, an RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter service spokeswoman told AAP.
He later died of his injuries which RACQ crewman Ben McCauley described as "absolutely horrific". "He'd suffered very serious bites, significant blood loss as well as cardiac arrest."
Whitsunday Police are now interviewing witnesses to the incident.
Calls for permanent drum lines
The Queensland government has been told to stop "flirting with danger" and install permanent drum lines around Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays.
The attack on Monday evening happened in the same waters where two tourists were mauled in separate attacks within 24 hours in September.
Tasmanian mother of two Justine Barwick, 46, was bitten on the left thigh while snorkelling on September 19 and underwent 18 hours of surgery.
Melbourne girl Hannah Papps, 12, was bitten while swimming in shallow water in Cid Harbour the following day. She lost her leg in the attack.
Baited drum lines were installed around Cid Harbour following the second attack but removed about a week later.
Queensland Fisheries Minister Mark Furner said at the time the drum lines, which had caught a number of large sharks, had been effective in raising awareness.
He ruled out permanent shark control measures because Cid Harbour was too far from the mainland to allow quick access to remove them in bad weather.
However, Whitsunday LNP MP Jason Costigan said the controls must be urgently reconsidered.
"I think we're flirting with danger when you compare us to other communities, from Alice Beach north of Cairns, down to Townsville, which is peppered with drum lines and nets and so forth, around Magnetic Island, the northern beaches of Mackay and you go all the way down to the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and we've got nothing in the Whitsundays - it's madness," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
Mr Furner's office has been contacted for comment.
Shark attacks in Queensland, 2018
January
- Reptile biologist Mathew Vickers had his left arm savaged by a two-metre grey reef shark off Lizard Island.
September
- Tasmanian mother of two Justine Barwick, 46, needed 18 hours of surgery after being bitten on her left thigh while snorkelling in Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays
- Less than 24 hours earlier, 12-year-old Melbourne school girl Hannah Papps received a life-threatening shark bite to her upper leg while swimming in the same waters
- Surgeons later amputated the schoolgirl's leg
- The attacks prompted Fisheries Queensland to roll out baited drum lines targeting sharks in the area
- Five tiger sharks and a small black tip shark were killed as a result, sparking criticism from environmentalists
November
- 33-year-old Victorian man dies after being attacked by a shark in Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays
- He had been on a charter boat with friends, paddleboarding and swimming before being bitten and was then airlifted to Mackay Hospital, where he later died
- The attack occurred in the same waters were two tourists were mauled in separate attacks within 24 hours two months earlier
