A federal MP has declared open season on sharks after Monday’s fatal mauling of a Victorian doctor in Queensland’s Whitsunday Islands region.

Daniel Christidis, 33, suffered “horrific” injuries after being mauled by an unknown species of shark at Cid Harbour on the first day of a yachting holiday with friends and colleagues.

Despite the frantic efforts by his travelling companions, Mr Christidis died from his injuries shortly after being flown by helicopter to Mackay Base Hospital.

It is the third serious attack at Cid Harbour in the past two months after Tasmanian woman Justine Barwick and Victorian 12-year-old Hannah Papps were both bitten in September.

The state government has rejected calls for drumlines and nets to be put in place across the popular tourist destination but LNP Member for the Queensland seat of Hinkler Keith Pitt wants to go a step further and have a cull of sharks in the region.

“I’ve had local fishos telling me the sharks are in plague proportion,” Mr Pitt told The Courier-Mail.

“They are an apex predator and we should thin them out.”

The state government has called a meeting of experts for Friday to discuss how best to manage shark populations in the area.

People are being advised not to swim at Cid Harbour at all and signs warning people of the dangers are expected to be installed by the weekend.

Mr Christidis’s brother used social media to pay tribute to the aspiring Melbourne cancer specialist.

“Daniel was all about getting everything meticulously right in life; to live deeply and fully, which he did,” he said on Instagram on Wednesday.

“If you knew my brother, you know just how much the world is at a loss right now.”