CANBERRA - Authorities in South Australia (SA) have recovered the bodies of two women who were swept out to sea while fishing on Tuesday. 

SA Police said that emergency services were called to a beach near the town of Streaky Bay, almost 500 km northwest of Adelaide, on Tuesday after reports that two women had gone missing in the ocean while walking the shallows.

An emergency search and rescue operation was launched and two women, aged 67 and 65, were pulled from the water but could not be revived. Local mayor Travis Barber told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the two women had been fishing for salmon when they went missing.

"This is really devastating for our town," he said. "As everyone widely knows we've had a couple of fatalities with shark incidents of late and now this." Lance Appleby, 28, was surfing at a beach southwest of Streaky Bay in January when he was attacked and killed by a shark, reported by witnesses to be a great white.

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Another surfer, 55-year-old Tod Gendle, was knocked off his surfboard and killed by a shark at the same spot in October 2023. Barber said that Tuesday's accident was a "stark reminder" that people need to take care on the region's coastline.