Man killed by shark off southern Australia while spear fishing
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man was killed by a shark on Saturday while spear fishing with friends off the south Australian coast.
The 28-year-old was part of a group spear fishing off Yorke Peninsula, west of the South Australia state capital of Adelaide, when witnesses reported seeing a shark attack him at midday, state police said in a statement.
Police and emergency services crews searched the area around Goldsmith Beach with boats and helicopters, but found no trace of the man, who is from Adelaide, the statement said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police warned swimmers who flocked to the peninsula's beaches in hot summer weather to leave the water.
Australia averages fewer than two fatal shark attacks a year. Two men were killed in shark attacks off the east and west coasts in the space of a week in November last year. They were the only fatalities for 2013.
The death of a 35-year-old surfer off the west coast on Nov. 23 prompted the Western Australia state government to begin a contentious cull of large sharks off popular beaches. The surfer was the seventh shark fatality off that state's beaches in three years.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Conservationists argue that trapping sharks on baited hooks attached to offshore drums will do nothing to reduce the shark danger.