Search for missing surfer now a recovery operation after evidence of bite marks found on surf board.

Australian police have confirmed that a surfer who went missing was “taken by a shark” after search and rescue teams recovered a surfboard scarred with “bite marks” from the area of the attack.

The victim – identified by Australian media as 37-year-old Steven Payne – was mauled by a shark while surfing at Wharton beach in a remote area of Western Australia, police said late on Tuesday.

It marks Australia’s fourth reported fatal shark attack in recent months.

“I can confirm that our search is a recovery, not a rescue,” Western Australia Police Force Senior Sergeant Christopher Taylor said, noting that the surfer’s body has not been recovered.

“A surfboard with evidence of bite marks was recovered from the water,” Western Australia Police said in a separate statement on Tuesday.

According to media reports, a shark was spotted just moments before the attack in the water off Wharton beach and screams were heard coming from the area where the man was surfing at about midday.

Australia’s 7News network said the victim was in chest-deep water about 50 metres (164 feet) from the shore with two other surfers when he was attacked. Police said the other surfers were unable to do anything to help.

In February, a shark killed a 17-year-old girl swimming off an eastern Australian island, while a 28-year-old surfer was fatally bitten in South Australia a month earlier.

On December 28, a shark fatally bit a 40-year-old man in the neck as he was spearfishing off Queensland.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies