Western Australia's fifth fatal shark attack in a year claims 24-year-old surfer

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Patrol vessels will continue their search to catch and cull the "massive" white shark that killed a 24-year-old surfer near Wedge Island yesterday.

Fisheries and marine officers have set shark capture equipment and baited lines in the water in an attempt to catch the shark responsible for the attack.

The 4m killer dubbed Brutus by surfers near Wedge Island, 180km north of Perth mauled Ben Linden as he surfed with a mate at 9am yesterday.

Mr Linden was surfing about 200 metres off an isolated beach, the WA Department of Fisheries said, when the fatal attack occurred.

A search to find Mr Linden's remains will continue today.

Yesterday, Fisheries Minister Norman Moore ordered a shark hunt to capture and kill the beast, saying of the unprecedented spate of attacks: "We seriously have got a problem."

The jet-ski rider who tried to retrieve the surfer said it was a "massive, massive white shark" and "there was blood everywhere".

When the victim's mate yelled for help, Matt Holmes, 22, who was towing a friend at the time, turned his jet ski to help.

"I was towing my mate on the back of the jet ski and just in front of us saw a guy get attacked by a shark," he said at the scene. "I just took my mate to the shore and went straight out and there was just blood everywhere and a massive, massive white shark circling the body.

"I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to knock me off and I did another loop and when I came back to the body the shark took it."

"When I came back the second time, he took the rest of him. I just thought about his family and if he had kids. I just wanted to get him to shore. I gave it everything I had."

Witnesses said the victim and his friend were only 80m from shore when the attack happened and the pair had walked several kilometres to reach the remote surf spot. They also reported seeing the shark swimming away from shore soon after the attack but no other sightings have been reported since.

WA Fisheries Minister Norman Moore recently said the state had pre-emptively banned shark tourism.