Queensland Ranger Perishes After Shark Attack Off Southern Great Barrier Reef

A Queensland ranger has died from injuries sustained from shark bites.

Zach Robba, a former pupil of Brisbane Iona college, was attacked while swimming off the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

The incident occurred on Monday.

The twenty-three-year-old had been working with fellow rangers about 75 kilometers northeast of Gladstone at the North West Island.

Once the ranger group had finished with the maintenance work, they all decided to take a swim to cool off.

Zach was attacked later on while swimming alone after his colleagues returned to the charter boat they were using.

According to Detective Senior Sergent Tony Anderson, who was talking to media outlets, Zach's workmates would have seen the attack taking place.

He said the four rangers were swimming off the back of the boat before the attack happened.

Zach was flown to Gladstone hospital to receive emergency treatment for injuries on his arms and leg but died as the injuries were extensive.

No one has identified what kind of shark attacked the ranger.

North West Island has experienced three shark attacks, including this incident in the past three months alone.

In January, a lemon shark attacked a nine-year-old girl and inflicted bite wounds on the back of her leg. There were puncture wounds to her foot as well.

In another attack that happened at North West Island back in December, a man escaped with minor injuries after a shovelnose shark attacked him in shallow waters.

The man suffered bites on his right hand and leg.

Other attacks from sharks along the Great Barrier Reef in the last eighteen months have happened.

The most recent fatality was in November 2018 when thirty-three-year-old doctor Daniel Christidis died after being attacked at Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.

In October last year, a British man lost a foot to a shark attack when he and his British backpacker friend were attacked.

The two Brits were snorkeling at Hook Island in Whitsunday.
And Last year in March, a twenty-five-year-old man at Hardy Reef close to Hamilton Island was bitten on the thigh by a shark.

The Iona College Old Boys Association, in their statement, said that Zach had found his dream job and had embraced all that it entailed.

Leeanne Enoch, the Environment Minister, said there would be a report made about the attack and offered her sympathy to Zach's family, saying the ranger network was a family, and they had lost a brother.