A great white pointer shark ... is still alive off the coast of Western Australia. Source: Supplied
WEDGE ISLAND: Emergency services are at the scene of a fatal shark attack on a remote beach north of Perth. Picture: Channel 10 Source: PerthNow
PATROL vessels will continue their search to catch and cull the "massive" white shark that killed a 24-year-old surfer near Wedge Island yesterday.
The 4m killer dubbed Brutus by surfers near Wedge Island, 180km north of Perth mauled Ben Linden as he surfed with a mate at 9am yesterday.
Mr Linden was surfing about 200 metres off an isolated beach, the WA Department of Fisheries said, when the fatal attack occurred.
A search to find Mr Linden's remains will continue today.
Mr Linden's devastated girlfriend Alana Noakes said last night:
"Ben was the most amazing man, he lit up the lives of all who knew him."
"He was the most talented, good-natured, beautiful person I've ever met. He was the love of my life, my best friend, my rock and my soulmate."
Yesterday Fisheries Minister Norman Moore ordered a shark hunt to capture and kill the beast, saying of the unprecedented spate of attacks: "We seriously have got a problem."
The jet-ski rider who tried to retrieve the surfer said it was a "massive, massive white shark" and "there was blood everywhere".
The shark tried to knock Matt Holmes, 22, off his jet ski as he attempted to pull the man on to the back of the craft. Then the beast returned to take the lifeless body for a second time.
"By the time I got out there half of him had been taken and the shark was circling," Mr Holmes said of the attack near Wedge Island, 180km north of Perth.
"I tried to lean off the side and pull him on the back, but as I did that, the shark came back and nudged the jet ski to try to knock me off.
"When I came back the second time, he took the rest of him. I just thought about his family and if he had kids. I just wanted to get him to shore. I gave it everything I had."
In a dramatic day yesterday:
* Fisheries Minister Norman Moore gave the order for the shark to be killed if caught.
* Mr Moore said the Government was re-assessing whether great white sharks should remain protected species.
* Local surfers at the beach had noticed a large shark in the vicinity in the previous four days. They had jokingly nicknamed it Brutus.
* Fisheries and marine officers set shark capture equipment and baited lines in the water to catch the beast.
* Water Police and Lancelin Volunteer Marine Rescue spent the day scouring the coast for the man's remains.
When the victim's mate yelled for help, Mr Holmes, who was towing a friend at the time, turned his jet ski to help.
"I was towing my mate on the back of the jet ski and just in front of us saw a guy get attacked by a shark," he said at the scene. "I just took my mate to the shore and went straight out and there was just blood everywhere and a massive, massive white shark circling the body.
"I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to knock me off and I did another loop and when I came back to the body the shark took it."
Yesterday's fatal mauling comes just three months after 33-year-old diver Peter Kurmann was killed by a shark off the South-West coast.
Bodyboarder Kyle Burden, 21, was killed near Bunker Bay in September, Bryn Martin, 64, disappeared while swimming off Cottesloe in October and American George Thomas Wainwright, 32, died after an attack while scuba diving off Rottnest Island, also in October.
Last month, 62-year-old surf lifesaver Martin Kane was rescued by a fellow paddler when a shark attacked his surf ski at Mullaloo Beach.
Department of Fisheries shark expert Rory McAuley said there had been an "unprecedented" number of fatal shark attacks off WA over the past two years.
Local resident and volunteer nurse Anne McGuiness, who has lived on Wedge Island for 36 years, was among the first to arrive on the scene yesterday.
"It was very, very sad indeed," she said. "There was a group of about 12 boys surfing and when I got here they were very distraught on the beach."
Witnesses said the victim and his friend were only 80m from shore when the attack happened and the pair had walked several kilometres to reach the remote surf spot.
Local resident Paul Burke said he feared such an attack would occur after hearing several reports of a large shark menacing surfers over the past four days.
"I've been fishing offshore and I've seen some monsters out there," he said.
"Local surfers have noticed a shark with a gut the size of a 44 gallon drum that they nicknamed Brutus."
"(The victim's friend) was in deep shock when I got there and was being given oxygen in the ambulance."
Fisheries and marine officers have set shark capture equipment and baited lines in the water in an attempt to catch the shark responsible for the attack.
Witnesses at the beach reported seeing the shark swimming away from shore soon after the attack but no other sightings have been reported since.
The local shire will consider opening the beach today if there have been no further shark sightings.
Surf Life Saving WA said Water Police had confirmed the attack was fatal.
Police from Jurien Bay and Lancelin were called to the popular surf beach after the man's distressed mate phoned for help.
The RAC rescue helicopter was called to air-lift the man back to Perth but it's understood his body is yet to be recovered.
The shark attack is the fifth in WA during the past 10 months.
In April, WA Fisheries senior shark research scientist Rory McAuley said the state was the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks, after the death of 33-year-old diver Peter Kurmann off the southwest coast, the fourth death in seven months.
Mr McAuley said there had been an ``unprecedented'' number of fatal shark attacks off WA in the past two years.
Last month, 62-year-old surf life saver Martin Kane was rescued by one of his fellow paddlers when a shark attacked his surf ski at Mullaloo beach.
A world-first acoustic tagging program introduced last year has shown sharks are lingering off the metropolitan coast for months at a time.
WA Fisheries Minister Norman Moore recently said the state had pre-emptively banned shark tourism.
