An Australian surfer is presumed dead after a shark attack while his girlfriend and others watched on in horror, only weeks into the couple’s six-month-long dream vacation.

The surfer who was killed by a shark in Western Australia this week would not want to have the animals or the one that fatally bit him to be culled, his heartbroken family say.

Recovery operations continue after the presumed death of a surfer mauled by a shark off a remote beach as police reveal he was a holidaying with his partner.