In the waters surrounding the remote Chatham Islands, a young man named Jade Kahukore-Dixon — twenty-four years old, a commercial diver by trade and a son by heart — lost his life to a shark on Tuesday, leaving a small community to reckon with the ancient and indifferent power of the sea. His father mourns him, his mayor remembers him, and a profession built on entering the ocean's depths is reminded once again of what that bargain can cost. Within a month, two shark encounters have marked the waters of Oceania, one survivable and one not, pressing the question of how human beings navigate a w
Commercial diver killed in shark attack off New Zealand's Chatham Islands
Jade Kahukore-Dixon, 24, was killed in the shark attack while diving off Chatham Island.
I kept picturing him when he was little. I'm not going to have my son.
Mark
What was Jade Kahukore-Dixon doing when the attack happened?
Mimi
He was working as a commercial diver off a boat near the Chatham Islands. That's his job—diving in those waters.
Luke
We don't know exactly what he was diving for or the specific conditions that day. The reporting doesn't give us those details.
Mark
How quickly did people respond?
Mimi
Paramedics pulled him from the water and got him to Waitangi Wharf, then to the hospital. A Flying Doctors plane was even sent from Christchurch, but it was turned back.
Luke
Which means he was already dead or dying by the time they turned the plane around. The reporting doesn't explicitly say when he died relative to arrival at the hospital.
Mark
What do we know about the shark?
Mimi
His father believes it was a great white. That's his assessment based on what he knows.
Luke
That's one person's belief, not confirmed fact. We don't have official identification of the species.
Mark
How is the community responding?
Mimi
The mayor knew him personally. She said he was well-liked, a local boy, and that this will devastate the diving community because it's their biggest fear realized.
Luke
That's the emotional truth from someone in position to know. But we're hearing from the mayor and his father—we don't have voices from other divers or community members beyond those two.
Mark
Is this part of a larger pattern?
Mimi
There was another shark bite in Queensland less than a month before, so yes, two incidents in the region recently.
Luke
Two incidents in a vast ocean over a month isn't necessarily a pattern. It's worth noting, but we should be careful not to overstate it.
Le Pouls
- A 24-year-old commercial diver was fatally attacked by what his father believes was a great white shark while working off the Chatham Islands on Tuesday.
- Paramedics pulled Kahukore-Dixon from the water and rushed him to hospital, but a Flying Doctors plane dispatched from Christchurch was turned back mid-flight — the outcome already sealed.
- The tight-knit Chatham Islands community is reeling, with Mayor Monique Croon warning the loss will send shockwaves through the local commercial diving world.
- Less than a month earlier, a woman survived a shark bite in Queensland waters, rescued by a naval vessel — two encounters in weeks raising urgent questions about safety in Oceanian waters.
- Authorities in Queensland have declined to hunt the shark responsible for that earlier attack, citing the near-impossibility of identifying the right animal, and instead point to SharkSmart safety protocols.
In the waters surrounding the remote Chatham Islands, a young man named Jade Kahukore-Dixon — twenty-four years old, a commercial diver by trade and a son by heart — lost his life to a shark on Tuesday, leaving a small community to reckon with the ancient and indifferent power of the sea. His father mourns him, his mayor remembers him, and a profession built on entering the ocean's depths is reminded once again of what that bargain can cost. Within a month, two shark encounters have marked the waters of Oceania, one survivable and one not, pressing the question of how human beings navigate a world they do not fully control.
Jade Kahukore-Dixon was twenty-four and working as a commercial diver off the Chatham Islands when a shark attacked him on Tuesday. Paramedics pulled him from the water and rushed him to Chatham Island Hospital, but he did not survive. A Flying Doctors plane sent from Christchurch was turned back before it arrived — the outcome already determined.
His father, Jacky Dixon, believes a great white shark was responsible. Speaking in grief, Dixon described a son who loved fishing and diving, who was protective of his family, and who was deeply loved in return. "I kept picturing him when he was little," he said. "I'm not going to have my son."
The Chatham Islands community knew Kahukore-Dixon well. Mayor Monique Croon, who knew him personally, called him a well-liked local boy and said his death would be devastating for the commercial diving community — a profession that carries risk, but one in which this particular fear had now become reality. "The community will be in total shock," she said.
The attack follows a separate incident in late October, when a woman in her fifties was bitten by a shark in Queensland waters near Mackay. She survived, rescued by the naval vessel HMAS Warramunga and transferred to hospital in stable condition. Fisheries Queensland chose not to hunt the shark responsible, noting it is virtually impossible to identify which animal caused an attack, and instead directed people to follow SharkSmart safety guidelines.
Two encounters within weeks — one fatal, one not — cast a long shadow over the waters of Oceania and over the communities whose lives are built around them.
Jade Kahukore-Dixon was twenty-four years old and working as a commercial diver off the Chatham Islands when a shark attacked him on Tuesday. He was pulled from the water by paramedics, rushed to Waitangi Wharf, and then transported to Chatham Island Hospital. He died there.
The attack happened in waters surrounding the small New Zealand territory, a place where Kahukore-Dixon had roots. His father, Jacky Dixon, believes a great white shark was responsible. In the aftermath, Dixon spoke about his son with the particular pain of a parent who has lost a child mid-life: the young man loved fishing and diving, was protective of his family, and was described as tough and deeply loved. "I kept picturing him when he was little," Dixon said. "I'm not going to have my son."
A Flying Doctors plane was dispatched from Christchurch around 1:15 p.m. to assist, but was turned back mid-flight. By then, the outcome was already determined.
The Chatham Islands community knew Kahukore-Dixon. Mayor Monique Croon, who knew him personally, called him a local boy who was well-known and well-liked. His death, she said, would be devastating for the commercial diving community there—a profession that carries inherent risk, but this particular risk, this particular fear, had materialized. "The community will be in total shock," Croon told reporters.
The attack is not an isolated incident in the region. Less than a month earlier, in late October, a woman in her fifties was bitten by a shark in Queensland waters near Mackay, about ten hours offshore from the coast. The bite caused multiple lacerations to her lower leg. She was rescued by HMAS Warramunga, a naval vessel that provided medical assistance before she was brought to Mackay Harbour and transferred to the local hospital in stable condition. That woman survived.
In the Queensland case, Fisheries Queensland made a deliberate choice not to hunt the shark responsible. A spokesperson explained that it is virtually impossible to definitively identify which shark caused any given attack, making such hunts ineffective. Instead, the agency encouraged swimmers and fishers to follow SharkSmart protocols—a set of safety guidelines for those working in coastal and open waters.
Two shark encounters in Oceania within weeks, one fatal and one survivable, underscore the ongoing reality of sharing these waters with large predators. The Chatham Islands community is now grieving a young man whose profession, and whose choice to work in those waters, carried a risk that materialized in the worst possible way.
Citations marquantes
He's a local boy. He's well-known, well-liked and this will be pretty devastating for our commercial divers. The community will be in total shock.— Chatham Islands Mayor Monique Croon
He would do anything to protect his family. He was an amazing boy, a very much-loved member of the family.— Jacky Dixon, Kahukore-Dixon's father
Envie de l'histoire complète ?
Lire l'original sur 7NEWS Australia ↗
Health & Medicine