Andrew Sharpe was killed in an attack while surfing on Friday at Kelp Beds in Australia’s Wylie Bay, taking 2020’s unprovoked great white shark attacks to record numbers

Father-of-two Andrew Sharpe was killed by a shark on Friday

Experts believe cooler water temperatures are behind an increased number of unprovoked and deadly suspected great white shark attacks since January – the highest for 86 years.

Dad Andrew Sharpe became the latest fatality after the surfer was killed in an attack on Friday at Kelp Beds in Wylie Bay, near Esperance, on Western Australia’s south coast.

A La Niña weather event in recent months has made waters more favourable for great whites, drawing them into shore, say scientists. 

The Taronga Conservation Society’s Shark Attack File has deemed six such incidents as unprovoked, while one, in July, was provoked.