A man has died in hospital after being bitten by a shark near an island that's had three attacks in just over three months.

The 23-year-old was swimming back to his charter boat with friends when he was attacked near North West Island, on the southern Great Barrier Reef, on Monday.

A doctor and paramedics sent to the scene fought hard to stabilise the man so he could be flown to the Gladstone hospital for surgery.

But he died from leg and arm injuries on Monday night. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

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In early January, a nine-year-old girl was attacked by a shark off the same island. She suffered a bite wound to the back of her leg, and puncture wounds to her foot.

A lemon shark was suspected of that attack.

And in late December a shovelnose shark bit a man in shallow waters at North West Island.

He suffered minor injuries to his right hand and leg.

There have also been a series of other shark attacks on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.

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In October last year, two British backpackers were attacked while snorkelling at Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands. One of the men lost his foot.

In March last year, a 25-year-old man suffered serious thigh injuries when a shark attacked him at Hardy Reef, near Hamilton island, which is also in the Whitsunday Islands chain.

Those attacks followed another fatality in November 2018, when Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis, 33, was killed at Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.