Abalone diver Marc Payne swims with sharks every day as he dives to the ocean floor off Western Australia's south coast — but it is the risk of skin cancer that haunts the 50-year-old diving veteran more than the prospect of being mauled by a white pointer.

Mr Payne has been diving in the Southern Ocean for the past 28 years and has had 13 close encounters with sharks.

He has lost a workmate to the ocean's most feared predator, but for him the terror of the surgeon's scalpel is far worse.

Mr Payne has had 20 basal cell carcinomas cut out from around his eyes, nose and his neck.

"To me I'm at peace with the environment I work in, but the sun is one of the most threatening things for me," he said.

"I might be a hardcore abalone diver but going to see the doctor about skin cancer is pretty scary.

"I've had a few scares along the way, I get called in to see the doctor and you are not really sure, it's always a scary wait and that there is one of the scary things you've got to deal with, but to me that wait is quite often more terrifying than something like a shark."

Abalone diver Marc Payne wants Australians to understand the sun is a bigger threat than sharks. ( ABC News: Mark Bennett )

He has worked the 800-kilometre coastline from the South Australian border to Hamelin Bay on WA's west coast since he was 21, and decades of sun exposure has taken its toll.

"There's no doubt the sun is one of the biggest concerns for me diving and working out here in the southern ocean, it's quite brutal."

From the deck of his abalone boat at Peaceful Bay on WA's south coast, Mr Payne wanted Australians to understand the risk they took exposing their skin to the sun was far greater than swimming with sharks.

"I feel really strongly about this, obviously being an abalone diver all the sharks and the things that happen around abalone is quite extreme but people don't understand that the sun is just as dangerous as anything we deal with out here."

We are still a sunburnt country

His personal story comes as a new Cancer Council National Sun Protection Survey released today revealed more adult Australians admitted they were allowing themselves to get sunburnt during summer.

WA Cancer Council manager Mark Strickland said Australians had become complacent about being sun smart. ( ABC News: Mark Bennett )

The survey of 3,700 Australians conducted last summer also showed they were wearing less protective clothing than 10 years ago, as adults were became complacent about covering up and 2.7 million Australians were getting sunburnt on summer weekends.

"Melanoma is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australians aged 15-29 years," WA Cancer Council manager Mark Strickland said.

The latest research showed skin cancer rates were plateauing in the 40-plus age group but were still climbing in the over 60s.

Mr Strickland said part of problem appeared to be a growing complacency among people who believed sunscreen alone was a suit of armour.

"In WA, 230 people die each year from skin cancer and a further 83,000 lesions are cut from the skin from WA people every year, that's a lot of pain and suffering that could be avoided."

He wants the Federal Government to spend more money on awareness campaigns to remind Australians about the need to cover up.

The Cancer Council WA has not received Federal Government funding assistance since 2007.