The widow of Australia's second shark attack victim in less than a week tearfully hailed him as a hero Thursday.
John Ford, 31, died Wednesday while scuba diving with his bride, Deborah, on their honeymoon, 15 days after their wedding.Five days earlier, Therese Cartwright was killed by a 12-foot-long shark while diving near a seal colony off Tasmania. Her husband and five children, including a set of 6-year-old quadruplets, watched helplessly from their boat.
Both victims were killed by great white sharks, considered the biggest and most deadly in Australian waters.
"He was a hero. He was a good husband and I loved him dearly," said Deborah Ford, 29.
She said Ford protected her as a 16-foot-long great white shark lunged at them.
"He pushed me out of the way. It took his life instead of me," she said.
Earlier Deborah Ford and a priest held a memorial service on a boat where the tragedy happened off the resort town of Byron Bay, 400 miles north of Sydney.
She and three other divers were not harmed in the attack.
Police called in hunters to catch the shark after it escaped from fishermen who hooked it hours after the attack.
It dragged their small boat for miles and spat out a human torso as well as pieces of wet suit and a face mask before struggling free.
Fisherman Ron Boggis said the shark was the size of an automobile.
Scientists asked the hunters not to kill other sharks indiscriminately, saying the creatures were crucial to the marine environment.
"The great white is like the lion of the sea," said John Paxton of the Australian Museum. "When people occasionally get attacked by lions don't go out and kill a whole lot of lions."