Tributes were paid today to a scuba diver who was killed by a great white shark in Western Australia, as details of his wife’s desperate emergency call were revealed.
Gary Johnson’s body was still missing after the shark attack near Cull Island, close to West Beach in Esperance, at about midday local time yesterday.
His partner Karen Milligan, who was just yards away at the time, told a police operator: “My husband’s been taken by a great white.”
She was being treated for shock in hospital on Monday.
Mr Johnson was a recreational diver and president of the Esperance Dive Club.
Police were using specialist divers and a search plane to find the body.
Ian Mickel, president of Esperance Shire said: “It’s a real shock to know a person as experienced as Gary has lost his life while he was doing what he loved.”
The area was the scene of a fatal shark attack in April 2017 when teenager Laeticia Brouwer was bitten while surfing with her father.
In 2014, Sean Pollard lost his left arm and right hand in an attack by two great white sharks.
There have been 16 fatal shark attacks in Western Australia since 2000.
