Posted by on March 20, 2005 at 03:24:48:
In Reply to: Deckhand killed in shark attack posted by on March 19, 2005 at 11:05:28:
Police named the victim of a fatal shark attack off Western Australia's mid-west coast as 26-year-old Geoffrey Brazier.
Mr Brazier, of Perth's riverside suburb of Alfred Cove, was taken on Saturday by a six-metre shark while snorkelling with tourists off the Abrolhos Islands group, 60km west of Geraldton.
Police said he had been skippering the luxury vessel, The Matrix, updating their earlier advice that he had been working as a deckhand on the boat.
Police and fisheries officers spent Sunday searching for the shark and Mr Brazier's remains at the scene of the attack at Wreck Point, off Pelseart Island, which is part of the Abrolhos group.
The Matrix, a charter vessel, was on its maiden voyage on the Perth to Kimberley route when the tragedy happened.
Police are continuing to interview others who were aboard the vessel when the attack happened about 2pm (WST) on Saturday.
The boat's owners, Matrix Ocean Adventures, declined comment on the tragedy, saying police were still trying to determine exactly what had happened.
But a company spokesman said sympathies would be privately extended to Mr Brazier's family and friends.
Saturday's fatality was the third such attack in WA in the past four and a half years.
Last July, 29-year-old surfer Brad Smith died after being attacked by a shark while surfing off Gracetown, about 270km south-west of Perth.
And in November 2000, 49-year-old Ken Crew died in a shark attack at North Cottesloe beach in Perth in an early morning swim.