A MAN DIED after a shark attack in northern Queensland state on Sunday, the third fatal shark attack this year in Australia.

The 39-year-old man died from a critical head injury after he was attacked while spearfishing at Kennedy Shoal, an offshore reef, Queensland police said.

“He was retrieved from the water by another person who was in the water with him at the time of the attack,” Queensland Police Inspector Elaine Burns said in a news briefing.

“That’s quite a terrifying thing to see happen in front of you,” she added.

Police were providing support to three men who called the coast guard for help from a private boat just before noon (3 am Irish time), and then travelled over an hour with their injured friend to shore.

The critically injured man arrived at a boat ramp at Hull River Heads at 1 pm, where emergency services were waiting.

The man died at the boat ramp, Queensland Ambulance said.

“This is a tragic incident for everyone involved,” Burns said, urging people to “continue to enjoy our beautiful coastline and be aware of your surroundings”.

The attack site is around 160 kilometres south of the popular tourist city of Cairns, where the man, who was not named by police, had lived.

Kennedy Shoal is a well-known fishing reef in deep water.

Gererd Pike of Hooked Up Fishing said his fishing charter boat was six miles from Kennedy Shoal on Sunday, and he had seen large numbers of “vicious, unpredictable” bull sharks in the area.

“We were chasing Spanish mackerel and had one eaten by a pack of six of them, four metres off the edge of the boat,” he told AFP.

“We were not going to dip toes in the water,” he added.

Pike said he heard the emergency services call in the incident over his boat’s radio.

Another boat charter operator with a vessel nearby said shark attacks in the area were rare, although bull sharks and tiger sharks were found there.

“It is not very common at all. It is one of those unfortunate things,” Rob Parsonage, of Mission Beach Dive, told AFP.

“The sharks are competing with the fishermen,” he said.

Sunday’s fatal shark attack is the third in Australia this year, and comes a week after a man was killed by a shark while spearfishing in Western Australia.

Daryl McPhee, a shark expert at Queensland’s Bond University, said fatal shark attacks are rare in north Queensland.

“There have now been six fatal bites in Queensland since 2020,” he told AFP.

The last fatal attack offshore between Townsville and Cairns was in 1990, he said.

“We do not know currently with certainty what species of shark was involved. Possible candidates are bull or tiger sharks,” he said.

McPhee added that spearfishing represents “a different risk profile than other activities and requires different approaches for mitigation compared to surfing”.