Spearfisher killed in Great Barrier Reef shark attack, second in a week

A 39-year-old Cairns spearfisher died after a shark attack at Kennedy Shoal, marking Australia’s second fatal shark attack in just over a week and renewing scrutiny of risk in one of the Great Barrier Reef’s popular fishing grounds.

Queensland Police said the man was spearfishing from a private vessel with three friends when he was attacked off the Queensland coast south of Cairns. Another person in the water pulled him out after witnessing the attack in full, police said. Emergency services were called to the Hull River boat ramp just after noon, and paramedics were waiting when the boat arrived at Hull Heads. He was declared dead there about 1pm.

Police said the victim suffered injuries not compatible with life and believed he died from a critical head injury. The shark species involved was not known. Queensland Police Inspector Elaine Burns said officers were supporting the men on board and their families, who she said would be “pretty traumatised.” She called it “quite a terrifying thing to see happen right in front of you.”

Kennedy Shoal is a shallow coral reef known for recreational fishing, and divers are also drawn there by the Lady Bowen, a 19th-century shipwreck. Fishers had reported bull sharks in the area before the attack, adding to concern around a site that already attracts spearfishers, reef divers and day-boaters.

The death came eight days after another fatal shark attack in Australian waters, when 38-year-old Steven Mattaboni was killed while spearfishing with friends about a kilometre offshore at Horseshoe Reef off Rottnest Island in Western Australia on May 16. It was Australia’s third shark fatality of 2026, after 12-year-old Nico Antic died following a suspected bull shark attack off a Sydney beach on January 18.

The pattern is still rare in absolute terms, but the clustering has sharpened attention on when and where people enter the water around reef systems. Australia has averaged more than three fatal shark attacks a year in recent decades, a reminder that the overall risk remains low even as individual incidents can be devastating. With the Queensland Department of Environment and Science expected to join the investigation, the focus now turns to the conditions at Kennedy Shoal and whether warnings, patrols or fishing practices around the reef will come under closer review.