The Elliston teacher’s body has not yet been found, although police, SES officers and community members will resume the search in the area on Sunday morning.
It will focus along the shoreline, rather than the water itself.
Police had been called to Walkers Rocks Beach, seven kilometres north of Elliston, after reports a man had been bitten by a shark.
A major search operation got underway but all that was located was the man’s surfboard.
“My understanding about the surfboard is that it’s complete with one bite mark in the middle and that’s the only thing they’ve got so far,” Trevlyn Smith from SES told 9News.
“A man is believed to have died following a shark attack at Walkers Rocks Beach this morning,” police said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
Elliston is an isolated coastal town about 600km west of Adelaide with a population of less than 400.
The area is well-known for its high numbers of sharks off the coast.
However, it would mark the first fatal shark attack off the coast of SA since 2014, when another teacher was taken in the waters off Yorke Peninsula.
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