Overview
- An anonymous $100,000 gift pushed the GoFundMe for Steven “Mattas” Mattaboni’s family to more than $317,660 toward a $500,000 goal.
- WA Police said his friends saw the attack, pulled him from the water, and performed CPR at Geordie Bay jetty, but he could not be saved.
- The spearfishing trip near Horseshoe Reef about 1 km northwest of Rottnest Island on Saturday ended in a fatal encounter with a great white.
- Surf Life Saving WA logged a 16-foot great white around the time of the attack, fishermen later filmed a shark circling a small boat, and fisheries officers searched the area.
- The death is the first fatal shark attack in Western Australia since March last year, with recent coverage also noting a cluster of east-coast encounters earlier in 2026.