The shark swam when the boy’s father jumped into the water, but the boy suffered lacerations to his body, Ambulance Tasmania said Friday.
It is in stable condition after the incident, which took place off Stanley on the northwest coast of Tasmania.
“The boy, from the northwest, was on board a six-meter boat on a fishing expedition about five kilometers from the coast with his father and two other men when a shark grabbed him from the boat,” authorities said.
“The boy’s father jumped into the water and at that moment the shark swam,” they added. “The boy, who was wearing a personal flotation device, suffered lacerations to his arm and other cuts to his chest and head.”
The attack is the latest of several shark attacks in Australia so far this winter.
On Tuesday, Anika Craney, 29, was attacked while swimming off Fitzroy Island near Cairns, CNN affiliate Nine News reported. She was on her day off filming a documentary on sharks when she was attacked, and is now recovering in hospital.
In early July, a 36-year-old man in the Australian state of Queensland died after being attacked by a shark while fishing underwater. And in June, a shark killed a 60-year-old surfer in Salt Beach, near Kingscliff, on the north coast of New South Wales.
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