A killer shark took the life of a Houston man who went diving off a popular Perth coast on Saturday.

George "Thomas" Wainwright, 32, was the third fatal shark attack off Australia's west coast in two months, authorities said.

"He was diving with college friends he had known since his days at Texas A&M (University)," the victim's father, George Wainwright, Jr. told Houston Chronicle.

"He was well liked and a very fun person," the elder Wainwright said.

Reports said Wainwright went diving alone while his friends remained on the boat, fishing.

The friends later told officials they felt an alarming strong nudge on the boat, after which they went looking for Wainwright and later recovered his body.

A police spokesman told Reuters the body surfaced with "obviously traumatic fatal injuries," noting that witnesses said the shark was about three metres in length.

Great white sharks can grow to more than six metres long.

Shark hunters including police authorities are now on the lookout off Rottnest Island where the attack took place. Sky News reported the island is only about 11 miles from Perth's Cottesloe Beach, where champion swimmer Bryn Martin was believed to have been killed by a great white shark on October 10.

The first in the recent succession of shark attacks in Australia took place last month near Dunsborough, also in Western Australia, where the fatality was a bodyboarder.

While wildlife conservation representatives are against killing white sharks as they are endangered species, police authorities are now hunting for the killer sharks in view of the successive killings.

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