A SNORKELLER is believed to have been snatched by a shark as he swam at the weekend with his son at a beach south of Perth.
Witnesses reported seeing a dorsal fin and thrashing in the water before the sea turned red and the man vanished at the scene on Australia's west coast.
Father-of three Brian Guest (51), who had campaigned for years for the protection of sharks, had been looking for crabs on Saturday morning with his 24-year-old son when he was attacked 30m (98ft) from shore.
Daniel Guest, who was swimming 6m away at the Port Kennedy beach, heard his father's screams but did not see the attack. He raced to shore when he saw blood in the water. His father's shredded wetsuit was found later. Air searches spotted a 5m great white shark in the area.
Some hours later on the east coast, at Sydney, a kayaker was reported to have survived after being knocked from his craft by a great white. This encounter, reported to have been endured by Steve Kulcsar (29), occurred less than a mile from shore at Long Reef and was filmed by a fisherman in a small boat nearby. The footage apparently showed the shark circling Kulcsar after bumping him off his kayak. It is seen for 10 minutes in the video lurking around him and two other kayakers before swimming away.
The two encounters sparked panic and closed beaches across Australia. Yesterday, Sydney's Bondi Beach was closed after a shark was spotted near shore. Swimmers were evacuated from a Queensland island after sharks were spotted in waist-deep water.
Brian Guest had written on the Western Angler website forum in 2004: "I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it . . . Every death is a tragedy, regardless of the cause, but we have no greater claim to use of this Earth than any of the other creatures [we] share it with."