The death of an experienced Australian diver off Rottnest Island has shaken coastal communities and raised a difficult question: Why did a great white shark cross paths with him at that moment?
According to one shark expert, the answer may have had as much to do with human activity as shark behavior.
Steven Mattaboni, a 38-year-old husband and father from Perth, Western Australia, was killed last weekend while spearfishing about 1.5 kilometers, or 0.9 miles, offshore near a coral reef off Rottnest Island, Ladbible reported.
Reports said a roughly 13-foot great white shark attacked him from beneath as he swam at the surface.
His family later remembered him as a "loving husband, father, son, brother and friend." Mattaboni had extensive experience as a diver and spearfisherman.
Bond University marine ecologist Dr. Daryl McPhee said spearfishing can raise the chance of a shark encounter because divers may tow bleeding fish on stringers, effectively creating what he called "a chum trail" in the water.
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Other experts said great white sharks are often along the coast at this time of year as they hunt seals and bigger fish around reefs. In the days after the fatal attack, authorities kept nearby beaches closed after a great white was reportedly seen stalking boats in the area.
In this case, the activity itself may have played a role.
Spearfishing puts people in the water with distressed, bleeding prey, which can send strong signals through an animal's natural hunting environment. That matters because it shifts the discussion from a random attack to one shaped, at least in part, by how people use the ocean. Carrying freshly caught fish can make a person far more noticeable to predators.
"One aspect that unambiguously brings most species [of] sharks into an area is spearfishing," Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, said to LADbible. "Speared fish generate vibrations attracting sharks in from quite a distance away. Once the sharks are brought in to a local area, they smell the blood from speared fish and will often focus their attention on the spear fishermen carrying the fish on a stringer. I suspect this is what happened."
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