Surfer Killed by Shark in Second Fatal Shark Attack of 2019

A surfer was killed in the second shark attack of 2019. The attack was off Reunion Island.

Published: 5/9/2019, 5:23:15 PM EDT

Surfer Killed by Shark in Second Fatal Shark Attack of 2019 — People look at a dead bull shark on a dock. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A surfer was killed by a shark in France—the second fatal attack of this year.

The shark attacked the 28-year-old man off Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

A witness said that the surfer disappeared underwater and that only his board remained visible at the shore, the Renuion government said in a statement.

The surfer, who lost a leg in the attack, was rushed to a hospital but was pronounced dead there, emergency officials told AFP. The "surfer was accompanied by three friends who tried to take him back to land but did not manage," said Olivier Tainturier, a senior local official in the nearby town of Saint-Paul.

The man, who wasn't identified publicly, was surfing in a banned area, according to the Mirror. Authorities had issued warnings to stay clear of the water on the morning of the attack.

It's the 24th attack since 2011 on the island and the 11th to result in death.

The shark was identified as a bull shark.

The attack prompted a 72-hour targeted fishing operation to try to catch some of the sharks in the area, the government said.

Researchers studying the significant increase in shark activity around Reunion Island concluded last year that the natural behavior of sharks in the Indian Ocean is part of the problem and that the development of the island's west coast was also a factor.

"With an increase in people and an increase in the population of bull sharks, we might have a deadly equation," said Florida International University marine biologist Jeremy Kiszka, a co-author of the study, which was published in Scientific Reports.

There was a twenty-threefold jump in shark bites off the island since the 1980s, the researchers said. Some 90 percent of the bites occurred during the peak months of June, July, and August along a 31-mile stretch along the island's west coast in the evening hours and on weekends.

"This is totally related to the sharks' behavior, and sharks preferentially attacked isolated swimmers and surfers," said Kiszka. "At dusk and dawn—especially at dusk—they tend to forage closer to shore."

The bull sharks usually stayed on the eastern side of the island but the development of the west coast has created more fresh water flows close to shore, luring them westward.

The Reunion Island attack was just the second worldwide this year, according to the Tracking Sharks website.

The first attack also happened off the French island.

Floris Huet, a 41-year-old fisherman, was killed by a shark on Jan. 30, reported the local outlet Imaz Press.

He left behind a wife and 4-year-old daughter.

The shark "tore his leg off less than five meters from the shore," the outlet reported. He died a few minutes after being attacked.