Texas Man George Thomas Wainwright Killed by Great White in Australia; Hunters Gather

Oct. 24, 2011 — -- The family of George Thomas Wainwright, the Texas man killed this weekend by a great white shark off the southwest coast of Australia, is in mourning for a man who was "passionate about life and his hobbies" as hunters mobilize in the area to hunt suspected man-eating rogue sharks.

Wainwright, 32, was attacked Saturday while diving solo off a boat near Rottnest Island, a few miles from the city of Perth in Western Australia state. It was the third fatal attack on a human by a shark in these waters in recent weeks.

In a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood horror movie, shark hunters have gathered and are trying to lure in the great whites using hooks baited with tuna. They're hoping to catch the creatures before they strike again.

Experts Doubt One Shark Committed All Three Attacks

Marine experts say it's unlikely that a single man-eating shark is responsible for all three attacks.

"The idea that a shark, once it has tasted human blood, would continue to attack is just completely false. That's not that way it would work," said Amy Wilkes, a marine biologist.

Barry Bruce, a federal government marine biologist and great white shark expert, echoed that sentiment.

"What we've seen, tragically, is three cases of people by sheer bad luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

"If you're in the path of a white shark that is in the process of hunting its natural prey, that's an exceptionally dangerous situation to find yourself in," he added.

Wainwright was an engineer who had had been part of the team that capped the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He decided to follow his dreams five months ago, and moved to Australia for a new job.

"He did more in 32 years than a lot of people do in a lifetime," the man's father, George Wainwright, said. "Thomas loved the water ever since he was a little boy. He loved the water."

That love included diving. While Wainwright was diving alone Saturday, his two friends in a nearby boat noticed a flurry of bubbles, and then saw their friend's lifeless body.

As his friends tried to pull him from the water, they say a great white measuring about 10-feet long, nudged their boat as they headed for shore.

Wainwright had apparently talked to family members on the night before he died.

Through tears, his sister, Wanda Brannon, said: "He was just an amazing individual with a love and a passion for the outdoors and for his family."

The family believes he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"He was very cautious," George Wainwright said of his son. "That didn't stop him from what he was passionate about. He was passionate about life and his hobbies and he didn't let that stop him."

Near the same waters where Wainwright died, a great white shark of about the same size killed an Australian swimmer Oct. 10. The man's remains were never found. Only his shredded swim trunks were recovered.

Near the same area last month, a shark said to be 15-feet long attacked and killed a body boarder.

Is It Revenge?

The Western Australia state government set tuna-baited hooks off the island Sunday, the first time authorities have used an emergency legal exemption from the state protection of great whites as an endangered species in the interests of protecting the public.

Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett also said his government would consider shark culls, responding to locals' complaints that shark numbers are increasing off bustling beaches in one of Australia's fastest growing population areas.

The idea has its detractors and supporters.

Barbara Weuringer, a University of Western Australia marine zoologist and shark researcher, urged against a shark hunt, saying there was no way of telling which shark was the killer without killing it and opening its stomach.

"It sounds a little bit like taking revenge, and we're talking about an endangered species," Weuringer said.

But a southwest coast-based diving tourism operator called on the state government to kill sharks that pose a threat to humans.

"The nuisance sharks -- the problem sharks that move into an area and are aggressive -- should be dispatched to remove the risk of future attack," Rockingham Wild Encounters director Terry Howson told the AP.

Howson said Australia was gaining a reputation as being "full of dangerous animals," saying that idea was hurting tourism.

The continent averages little more than one fatal attack a year along an expansive 22,000-mile coast. But it is a primary home of the great whites, a large species of which some animals can grow to 20-feet long.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.