Australian shark victim was "cut in half"

Sep 4, 2011, 23:47 GMT

Sydney - The victim in a weekend shark attack on Australia's west coast was already dead before his surfing friends dragged his 'cut in half' body up the beach, news reports said Monday.

The 21-year-old bodyboarder died instantly when he was mauled by what is believed to have been a great white shark at Bunkers Bay, Dunsborough, 255 kilometres south of Perth.

'They said he was cut in half, and there was just no hope, that he was already dead,' a witness who declined to give her name told The Australian newspaper about Sunday's incident.

But officials said there were no plans to hunt down the shark as it belongs to a protected species.

The attack, which happened at midday in front of families out on Father's Day excursions, have prompted calls for the killing of sharks that come close to the shore.

Fisheries Department shark researcher Rory McAuley said a shark could be killed only if it posed an immediate threat to people and that identifying the attacker was problematic.

'There's no policy to hunt down a shark that may have killed someone and how we'd go about identifying a shark if we happened upon it today I don't know because there could be any number of sharks in the area,' he told national news agency AAP.

Locals said it was likely the shark came inshore following a pod of whales or to prey on seals.

For many decades Australia has averaged one fatal shark attack a year despite a big rise in leisure seaside activities like surfing.