A 29-year-old man is recovering in a Brisbane hospital after being bitten by a shark and airlifted for treatment from Moreton Bay Island. The incident occurred near the Wrecks Walking Track at 3pm on Saturday, and the man was initially treated on the scene for abdominal and leg injuries before being flown to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a stable condition, where he is currently being cared for.
This is the second shark attack in Moreton Bay in less than a month, and the fourth in Queensland waters in recent months. In February, a 17-year-old girl named Charlize Zmuda died after being bitten by a shark off nearby Bribie Island. Additionally, in Christmas 2024, a 40-year-old named Luke Walford was killed by a shark near Humpy Island offshore from central Queensland, while another man was hospitalized after a shark attack on nearby Curtis Island. Both men were spear fishing at the time of the attacks.
The Wrecks Walking Track, a popular snorkelling site for tourists visiting Moreton Island, connects the Tangalooma Resort to a group of ships that were sunk between the 1960s and 1980s. A YouTube video included in the article discusses how LED lights on surfboards or kayaks may deter shark attacks according to certain researchers.
Despite a long-term rise in shark bites, experts maintain that the risk of being attacked by a shark remains extremely low, with fatal bites being even less common. The average number of deaths from shark bites in Australia rose from 1.8 deaths per year between 2004-2013 to 2.7 deaths per year between 2014-2023. However, Australia’s robust beach rescue services are credited with helping to keep the number of fatalities down.
Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program, acknowledged Australia as a global hotspot for shark attacks, largely attributed to the country’s affinity for the ocean. In 2023, there were 10 fatal shark bites globally, with four of these occurring in Australia, three of them off the coast of South Australia.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/23/man-bitten-by-shark-off-queenslands-moreton-island-in-second-attack-in-less-than-a-month
