An Australian surfer is presumed dead after a shark attack while his girlfriend and others watched in horror, only weeks into the couple’s six-month-long dream vacation. Steven Payne, 37, was surfing off Wharton Beach — a remote area of Western Australia about 480 miles from Perth — when the shark mauled him Monday afternoon,

The surfer who was killed by a shark in Western Australia this week would not want to have the animals or the one that fatally bit him to be culled, his heartbroken family say.

A surfer who was fatally mauled by a shark in front of his partner at a remote WA beach was a “talented sportsman” from New Zealand. Steven Payne, 37, who lived in the Melbourne region, was attacked while surfing at Wharton Beach near Esperance, 800km southeast of Perth, just after midday on Monday. His body is yet to be recovered.