On May 24, 2026 at midday, off Kennedy Shoal - shallow coral reefs around 50 kilometers offshore from Cairns in Queensland, Australia - a 39-year-old man died in a shark attack while recreationally spearfishing. It's the second fatal shark attack in Australia in a single week.

The victim was rushed to the medical center at Hull River Heads near Tully in critical condition, but did not survive. The species of shark has not yet been confirmed. According to local services, bull sharks and tiger sharks are "widely distributed along the length of the Great Barrier Reef," while white sharks live in this reef but are "rare in deeper waters."

Last week a 38-year-old man also died in a shark attack near Rottnest Island, off Perth. The two cases come at a period when shark attacks in Australia are statistically trending up - not dramatically, but noticeably. According to marine biologists, the causes are mixed - more people in the water (the rise in eco-tourism), climate change affecting water temperatures and shark movement, and increased presence in areas where hunting and fishing attract predators.

Australia handles this reality systematically: protective nets at popular beaches, sonar tracking systems, surveillance drones. Yet on open water - at a reef 50 kilometers offshore - the technology doesn't help much. People who fish recreationally know the risk, and that's part of the activity. Still, when there are two fatal cases in a single week, the conversation about protection opens up again.

From a Balkan perspective, this is some distant Pacific and tropical water. Yet - when a man from Šibenik died of a shark attack in the Adriatic some years ago, the conversation here went the same way. That the sea is not a toy. That the statistics are low, but not zero. And that living by the sea is one thing - forgetting that it isn't yours is another.