55-year-old mauled on the shoulder after going over the side of the boat near Yeppoon

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Queensland man has been bitten on the shoulder by a reef shark as he tried to wrangle it into his boat.

The 55-year-old was recovering in hospital after the shark turned on a group of fishermen who hooked it at Swains Reef, off Yeppoon, on Monday.

The shark attacked the man as both went over the side of a small tender 500 metres away from their charter fishing vessel.

“Mozzie thought he could bloody wrangle it in the boat and he slipped out over the side and, yeah, as he went over the side the shark grabbed hold of the top of his arm,” another fisherman with the victim told Seven News.

“Yeah [we] pulled him back into the boat, yeah, and then we come straight back to the main boat and they administered bloody first aid, yeah.”

The victim was returned to the mainland early on Tuesday, where he was filmed walking around with a bandage on his shoulder, shaking hands with emergency personnel sent to help him.

Ambulance supervisor Brad Meyers said the injured man was in remarkably good spirits despite his ordeal.

Whitsundays shark attacks occurred in swimming 'no-go zone', conservationists say Read more

“He stated that he caught a large reef shark and as he went to pull it on board it turned and bit him on the upper arm,” he told reporters. “Despite a large wound to his upper arm he’s in remarkable condition, very joyful.”

It was the third shark attack in as many weeks in Queensland.

On 20 September, 12-year-old Hannah Papps from Melbourne received a life-threatening wound to her right leg while swimming at Cid Harbour, in the Whitsundays.

A day earlier, Tasmanian Justine Barwick, 46, was bitten on her left thigh while snorkelling in the same area.

Those two attacks sparked a shark-baiting operation in the Whitsundays.

Six sharks were killed before the hooks were taken out of the water a week after the girl and woman were attacked.