THE diver taken by two great white sharks off the coast of South Australia last night had survived a brush with a great white only last August.

Police today resumed the search for the experienced abalone diver - named by AdelaideNow as Peter Clarkson - after he was attacked while surfacing near about 25km west of Coffin Bay near the bottom of Eyre Peninsula.

Officers believe two great whites dragged Mr Clarkson, 50, under and took his body out to sea.

The skipper of the aluminium boat from which Mr Clarkson was working saw the attack and told ambulance officers: "I saw the beast come up and take him. There's no way he could have survived."

Mr Clarkson was used to encounters with sharks and in a testimonial promoting the use of SharkShield - a shark deterrent system - he told of his brush with a great white last August.

Scroll down for list of fatal shark attacks in Australia

"I was making a slow ascent when I realised that I was no longer alone. Ten metres away, swimming vertically at the same rate as myself, was a great white shark," he wrote on website Swellnet.com.au

"It was a scenario I had rehearsed in my mind a thousand times during the 27 years I have been diving, but this was the first shark of this species that I had encountered underwater."

Mr Clarkson, who is believed to live outside South Australia, said the shark was four metres long.

It is not yet known if he was using the SharkShield system when he was attacked yesterday.

Since 1985, 11 people have been killed by sharks in South Australian waters - the most recent being Jarrod Stehbens, 23, in August 2005.

The last fatal shark attack recorded in Australian waters was in August 2010, when a surfer died after being mauled in Cowaramup Bay off the coast of Western Australia, according to the Australian Shark Attack File.

South Australian Abalone Industry Association president Jonas Woolford said the small diving community "would be devastated by the death of one of their own".

Lower Eyre Peninsula District mayor Julie Low said she was shocked at the tragic event.

"The council's thoughts are with the family and friends in these difficult circumstances," she said.

The abalone fishery in South Australia is one of the more valuable commercial fisheries, worth about $50 million annually.

About 96 per cent of the catch is exported in cans, live, frozen, dried or boiled.

Fatal shark attacks in Australia

* February 17, 2011: An abalone diver is taken in an attack by two sharks, believed to be white pointers, while surfacing near Perforated Island in Coffin Bay.

* August 17, 2010: A 31-year-old man died from serious injuries after a shark attacked him while he was surfing near Gracetown in Western Australia's southwest.

* December 27, 2008: Fisherman Brian Guest, 51, taken by a great white while snorkelling at Port Kennedy in Perth's south. His son and beachgoers saw the shark attack and swim off with him in its mouth.

* April 8, 2008: A 16-year-old boy from Wollongbar killed by a shark while bodyboarding off Ballina's Lighthouse Beach on the NSW north coast.

* January 7, 2006: Sarah Kate Whiley, 21, mauled by up to three bull sharks while swimming in waist-deep water with friends at Amity Point, off south-east Queensland's North Stradbroke Island.

* August 24, 2005: Marine biologist Jarrod Stehbens, 23, taken by a shark, believed to be a white pointer, while diving for cuttlefish eggs with colleagues off Adelaide's Glenelg Beach.

* March 19, 2005: Geoffrey Brazier, 26, attacked by a six-metre shark, believed to be a great white, as he snorkelled near the Abrolhos Islands, off Geraldton, 500km north of Perth.

* December 16, 2004: Nick Peterson, 18, killed instantly when attacked by a great white shark as he was towed behind a boat on a surfboard 300 metres off Adelaide's popular metropolitan West Beach.

* December 11, 2004: Mark Thompson, 38, attacked by a shark while spear fishing with two friends at Opal Reef, about 75km from Cairns in north Queensland. He died from a cardiac arrest soon after the attack.

* July 10, 2004: Brad Smith, 29, attacked by two sharks, believed to be a great white and a large bronze whaler, as he surfed near Gracetown in Western Australia's south-west.

* February 8, 2003: Bob Purcell, 84, attacked by a 2.5 metre bull whaler while swimming in Burleigh Lake on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

* December 16, 2002: Beau Martin, 23, attacked while swimming in Miami Lake on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

* April 30, 2002: Scallop diver Paul Buckland, 23, dragged from a mate's arms by a six-metre white pointer while trying to get on board a boat in Smoky Bay in the Great Australian Bight, South Australia.