Kelly Slater, the world’s greatest ever surfer, has called for sharks to be culled off a popular surfing island in the Indian Ocean following a horror spate of attacks.

The American 11-time world champion reopened the shark cull debate after a young bodyboarder was fatally mauled last week in what was the 20th shark attack off Reunion Island in six years.

The extraordinary run of attacks, which resembles WA’s experience since 2010, prompted Slater to say “there needs to be a serious cull on Reunion and it needs to happen everyday”.

He said it was so bad “if the whole world had these rates of attack nobody would use the ocean and literally millions of people would be dying like this”.

The intervention represents an about-face by the American 11-time world champion, who has previously opposed culls and said he would be “honoured” to be taken by a shark.

In comments posted to his 1.9 million Instagram followers, Slater said there was clearly an “imbalance” in the island’s marine environment that had led to an over-population of sharks.

He said that unless numbers of sharks were pared back off Reunion, which is a territory of the French Government, more people would be killed in similar incidents.

“Honestly, I won’t be popular for saying this but there needs to be a serious cull on Reunion and it should happen everyday”.

“There is a clear imbalance happening in the ocean there.

“The govt (sic) needs to figure this out asap.

“20 attacks since 2011!?”

Play Video Rusty signs deal with Shark Mitigation Systems for shark deterring designs on surfboards. The West Australian Video Rusty signs deal with Shark Mitigation Systems for shark deterring designs on surfboards.

Following a barrage of criticism from opponents of shark culling, Slater posted subsequent comments in which he defended his record as an environmentalist.

The 45-year-old said he had been a “voice for more campaigns that I can remember” but the circumstances off Reunion warranted a sober response.

“I was in no way advocating for a worldwide destruction of any species,” he said.

“In fact there’s a chance many more species of sharks and other sea life could thrive without the over abundance of bull sharks in Reunion Island ravaging the local environment.

“This is not about me having fund and being selfish for my sport.

This is a human and environmental issue.”