A woman watched her father being mauled to death by a large shark today while the pair were diving off the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said. The adult woman had returned to their boat with scallops that the pair had collected, then became concerned that her father, in his late 40s, had not surfaced. "His daughter became worried and went down and checked on her father," says a police official in Hobart. "She saw a very large shark. She saw her father being attacked by the shark."
The attack happened off the east coast near where a 15-foot-long great white shark was seen yesterday. The last fatal shark attack off the Australian coast occurred in February, when Japanese tourist Tadashi Nakahara, 41, lost both his legs to a great white while surfing at Ballina. Today's attack occurred as Australian professional surfer Mick Fanning made his first return to the water since he fought off a large shark during a World Surf League competition in South Africa last weekend. "First surf back. Feels so good," Fanning wrote under a silhouetted photo of himself looking out to the ocean, which he posted on Instagram. (More shark attack stories.)