Widow returns to ocean one year after husband's fatal shark attack

An Esperance woman has marked the first anniversary of her husband's death with a dive near the place where he was fatally attacked by a shark.

Gary Johnson was in the ocean with his wife Karen Milligan near Cull Island in January 2019 when he was attacked by a great white shark.

Despite search crews scouring the water for days his body was never recovered.

Ms Milligan told radio station 6PR she initially mistook the shark for a whale before her husband was attacked.

"We were diving, Gary was a little bit ahead of me, he'd just dropped down behind a little knoll," she said.

"When I went over the top of the knoll there was this huge tail.

"I thought it was a whale tail and I was about to whip the cover off the camera cover and start videoing.

"To me the first sense is this is an amazing David Attenborough moment but what happened is that it turned into tragedy."

Ms Milligan said the shark was "just doing what sharks do".

In the town of Esperance there has been three fatal shark attacks in three years.

Ms Milligan said there was a great fear of sharks in the community and many people were still avoiding swimming.

On the anniversary of her husband's death, Ms Milligan and and a group of locals returned to the site of the tragedy.

"Ten people did a dive in a spot close to where Gary was taken," she said.

"That was our go to place we just loved it.

"For me it was really important as sort of a memorial for Gary, and for the town we were hoping to allay the fears they have of getting back into the water."

The Gary Johnson Foundation has been set up to honour her husband and promote a "healthy ocean" around the Recherche Archipelago.

"We want to focus on human interaction with the ocean and how we can impact on it," she said.