Beach in Noumea, New Caledonia Photo: AFP
A man has died following a shark attack off the small town of Koumac, on New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre.
While his family were out on a picnic on a nearby beach, the father of two had gone spear fishing on Thursday afternoon, near the islet of Kendek.
Witnesses said he was bitten on his arm, New Caledonia's Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas said on Friday in a release.
While emergency rescue was organised by plane, attempts were made to resuscitate the victim, but he was pronounced dead a few hours later, at around 6:30 pm, sources said.
Dupas said as part of the investigation, he had required a post-mortem to be carried out on the body, in an attempt to find which species of sharks had attacked.
The January 2 attack in New Caledonia comes only hours after a man was believed to have been killed by a shark off South Australia's west coast.
In January and February 2023, a series of three shark attacks took place on beaches in the capital Nouméa, killing one Australian tourist.
Nouméa municipality and Southern Province authorities then decided to carry out a culling campaign which caused the death of an estimated 120 bulldog and tiger sharks.
The culling was eventually declared illegal by a series of court rulings.
Photo: Tuo Chinula.
The court justified its decision by pointing out there was not enough scientific knowledge to carry out this systematic culling, which also caused significant collateral damage to other non-shark species.
Since then, several anti-shark nets have been installed on Nouméa's most popular beaches.
