British expat killed by 15-foot great white shark classified as ‘provoked incident’

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Shark attacks free diver in Maldives

A nurse shark nabbed at a free diver in the Maldives that left the woman with a six-inch wide mark on her shoulder blade. Credit: @the_sharkguy on Instagram

A 35-year-old British citizen living in Australia was killed in a brutal shark attack last year in what researchers are calling a “provoked incident.” 

Simon Nellist, a diving instructor and former UK Royal Air Force serviceman, died after being attacked in February 2022 by what witnesses described as a 15-foot great white shark at Buchan Point, near Little Bay, southeast of Sydney,

The incident, Sydney’s first fatal shark attack in decades, shocked the world. Extremely graphic video of the attack emerged online. The video shows thrashing in the water and a pool of blood about 50 yards off the coast.

Simon Nellist died in Sydney, Australia from a 15-foot-long great white shark in Febuary 2022.  (Facebook)

A witness, Kris Linto, said the swimmer was in the water when the shark “came and attacked him vertically.”

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The International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a global database of all known shark attacks which is run by the Florida Museum, has classified Nellist’s death as a “provoked incident.” The database classifies “provoked incidents” when a “human initiates interaction with a shark in some way.”  

A great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) baited by the animal guide, Andre Hartmann, surfaces with an impressive open mouth on December 02, 2007 in Gansbaii, South Africa, Atlantic Ocean.  (Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, told The London Times that Nellist was “in no way intending to provoke” the shark had been swimming in an area where people were fishing.

“We find that a large fraction of bites that are reported to us occur where people are fishing and there is chum or bait in the water. Fishing brings bait fish closer to shore than they might otherwise be, and sharks often follow,” he said.

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He explained that these circumstances might have “excited” the shark or induced “atypical behavior.”

As a result, ISAF classified the incident as “provoked,” Naylor said.

The number of unprovoked shark bites fell in 2022, potentially reflecting a global decline in shark populations. (JANE DOMINGUEZ/UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA)

In 2022, ISAF investigated 108 alleged attacks worldwide in 2022. It confirmed 57 attacks of unprovoked shark bites on humans and 32 provoked bites.

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The organization shared that in 2022 there were nine shark-related fatalities worldwide, with the U.S. leading in unprovoked shark attacks. 

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a writer on the breaking news team for Fox News Digital. You can reach her on Twitter at @s_rumpfwhitten.