A 37-year-old surfer was tragically killed in a shark attack in Australia this week, authorities announced Tuesday.
The Western Australia Police Force said the incident occurred at around 12:10 PM on Monday at Wharton Beach.
Officials said they recovered the man’s surfboard in the immediate aftermath of the encounter — and it had bite marks on it. The surfer’s body, though, has still not yet been recovered.
“It is heartbreaking, obviously,” Esperance police senior sergeant Chris Taylor told reporters just outside one of the pristine beach’s entrances. “And the whole community of Esperance feels the pain.”
Multiple outlets have ID’ed the surfer as Steven Jeffrey Payne — a Melbourne native. Taylor said Tuesday the man’s family is “distraught and trying to come to terms with what happened yesterday.”
The area, unfortunately, is known for these kinds of situations … the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said this week there were at least three shark-related fatalities in the region from 2017-2020 alone.
Wharton Beach has been closed in wake of Monday’s incident — though officials said they’ll reconsider opening later Tuesday.
