Brit tourist mauled to death by 15ft great white shark called provoked incident

The death of Brit bloke mauled to death by a monster 15ft great white shark has been declared a "provoked incident".

The first fatal victim of a shark attack in Sydney, Australia, in 60 years, British tourist Simon Nellist was swimming in fishing waters when he was set upon by the beast on February 16 last year.

Mr Nellist, 35, from Cornwall, was a former RAF gunner and survived two tours of Afghanistan, but died in front of traumatised beachgoers off Little Bay beach.

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Now his death has been officially classified as a "provoked incident" in a report by the International Shark Attack File despite Mr Nellist not deliberately doing anything to alarm the shark, reports the Mail.

And while all shark attack incidents around the world are categorised based on their individual circumstances, a number of reasons have been identified to declare Mr Nellist's tragic death as a "provoked incident".

Director for the Florida Programme for Shark Research Gavin Naylor told YouTube channel Shark Bytes in February that his death was excluded from the unprovoked attack statistics "because we do not consider it an unprovoked incident".

"While Mr Nellist did nothing consciously to provoke an incident, he was swimming in an area where people were fishing," he said.

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"Fishing is an activity that draws sharks in. We therefore consider it provoked for our purposes.

"Any factor that draws sharks to an area (fishing, chumming, scalloping, etc.) or behaviour that goad the shark, riding them, petting them, feeding them (you might be surprised what people do!) are thought to induce behaviours that are not 'typical'."

And despite Mr Nellist's horrifying death, his family have said he wouldn't have wanted for the shark to be destroyed.

His aunt Jacqui Seager, 62, told the Mail: "I don't think Simon would want the shark to be killed. He loved nature.

"He swam with sharks before. This isn't the first time he's gone out and seen them but he would still go out swimming. That's brave. I don't think he ever thought they would hurt him.

"Sadly, this time it managed to get to him."

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