A teenage girl died on Monday after being bitten by a shark while swimming at a popular beach in Queensland on Australia’s eastern coast, according to the authorities.
The teenager, Charlize Zmuda, had been in the water off Woorim Beach, a surf spot about 45 miles north of Brisbane, when she was attacked by the shark just before 5 p.m.
Paramedics rushed to treat Ms. Zmuda, 17, who had sustained “life-threatening upper body injuries,” the Queensland Ambulance Service said in a statement. She died on the beach from her injuries, according to the Queensland police.
It was unclear what kind of shark attacked Ms. Zmuda. The beach was closed until further notice, Surf Life Saving Queensland, the state’s aquatic rescue group, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Queensland Police said in a statement that it would prepare a report for the coroner on the encounter.
Ms. Zmuda, a student, had grown up swimming in the area and was a skilled lifeguard, according to her family and Surf Life Saving Queensland. Ms. Zmuda had helped lead a patrol group and volunteered for a program teaching children ocean rescue skills, her family said. She was also musically talented, they said, and sang and played several instruments.
“She loved the beach, and it was truly was her happiest place on earth,” her family said in a statement shared with local media. “She loved four-wheel-driving up the beach, and anyone who went with her knew they would have to stop and pick up every piece of rubbish she saw along the way.”
The beach is one of many along the state’s coastline that has installed drumlines — an offshore system of shark population control that uses buoys and baits to catch sharks and then release them.
“A strong swimmer, a skilled lifesaver and someone who knew the ocean well — yet nothing could have prepared her, her family, or any of us for what happened,” a swim club she attended said in a social media tribute, calling her death a “cruel and unfathomable twist of fate.”
Dave Whimpey, the chief executive of Surf Life Saving Queensland, called it “shocking and confronting news,” in an interview with the A.B.C. Though such attacks were rare, he said, this one had a “huge impact on the lifesaving community right around Australia.”
Thousands of people attended a tribute for Ms. Zmuda on Tuesday, the day after she died. Her father, Steve Zmuda, said in an interview with the A.B.C. that they did not want the attack to discourage beachgoers. “It’s a big part of our lives,” he said.
Australia, like the United States, is a relative hot spot for shark attacks, though they are rare — and fatal attacks even rarer. In 2024, there were at least four shark encounters, according to the Taronga Conversation Society Australia, which tracks such events. In another fatal episode in December, a 40-year-old man died while spearfishing on an island off the Central Queensland coast. In July, a surfer survived an attack by a great white shark off the coast of New South Wales, but lost his leg.
For the past 10 years, there have been about 20 shark encounters each year where people are injured, the conservation society said.
