Her 43-year-old partner, who was diving with her, felt something brush past him before he noticed a commotion in the water, police said.
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There was renewed debate even before his death and the events off Mindarie about the state government’s shark policy, with ministers having elected to place drum lines off Perth beaches in 2013 in response to seven shark deaths.
An Australian surfer who lost a leg in a shark attack on Tuesday died in Royal Perth Hospital on Friday night.
It was the second fatal shark attack in the region in six days.
The diver’s death takes the number of shark attack deaths in WA to 15 since 2000.
The Department of Fisheries in Australia has deployed a boat to Mindarie, where Mrs Collyer was diving, to investigate and to prepare to trap the shark.
This is the first time two fatal shark attacks had occurred in Western Australian waters within such a short period of time, Fisheries metropolitan regional manager, Tony Cappelluti, said in a press release on Monday.
The identity of the woman has not yet been officially confirmed but her husband learnt of the tragedy soon after from her diving partner.
“That takes effort and that takes time and it takes building relationships and so far instead of doing any of that, we’ve done “kill the shark”.
A 13.77-foot shark was caught on June 1 on a on a line set up around the area Gerring was attacked.
Doreen Collyer was killed while diving off Mindarie yesterday when she was attacked by what was believed to be a 5.5m great white shark.
“They jumped to work straight away, it was pretty horrific to see someone you know in that predicament”, he said.
‘She was a much loved and respected colleague, mentor and teacher, ‘ Prof Omari said.
An inspection of Gerring’s damaged surfboard showed a white shark was responsible.
‘There seems to be more large sharks, particularly great whites, and they seem to be closer to the beaches’.
WA Premier Colin Barnett said all of WA was in shock after the “ferocious attacks”.
Mr Jacob, who is also WA’s environment minister, said the state’s shark hazard mitigation strategy was as good as it could be, but would be improved as monitoring and tagging technology evolved.
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“There’s no doubt, if you swim on the beaches and you swim in controlled areas through surf life saving clubs, you are safe”.
