A fatal shark attack off the west coast of Australia on the weekend has sent panicked beachgoers into a frenzy, with numerous false alarms clearing popular beaches around the country.

Brain Guest, 51, went missing on Saturday morning while snorkelling with his son about 100ft off the beach at Port Kennedy on the south coast of Western Australia.

A two-day search by air and sea failed to find any trace of Mr Guest, who is feared to have been taken by a 14ft-long great white shark which was seen thrashing about in the water when the banker went missing.

A WA police spokesman said a search party of six boats and three helicopters found just a small piece of wetsuit believed to have belonged to Mr Guest. The search was scaled down yesterday, and police are not looking for the shark.

Mr Guest’s family have called for the shark to be spared as the victim – an avid ocean lover who was fond of fishing and diving - believed that if he did die in the sea he would at least go doing what he loved.

Mr Guest’s brother Bill said he “loved his fishing, his diving and did everything he did with a great passion.”

Daniel Guest, 24, who was snorkelling with his father when he went missing, said his father “loved and respected the ocean environment, he was brought up on it”.

Mr Guest wrote on a fishing website forum that he did not believe in killing sharks.

“I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it, at least it was doing what I wanted,” he wrote on the Western Angler forum in 2004.

Mr Guest’s disappearance has raised the alarm at beaches all around Australia, with a spate of real – and false - shark sightings being reported by panicky beachgoers around the country.

On Sunday a shark was sighted by an air patrol 650ft off Cottesloe Beach in Perth, WA, and in Sydney three kayakers were menaced by a great white shark off Long Reef in the city’s northern beaches.

In Queensland more than 30 aggressive broad-nosed sharks were seen thrashing about in waist-deep water at North Stradbroke Island, a popular tourist spot near Brisbane.

Bondi Beach in Sydney was also evacuated twice in the past two days due to shark sirens – in one instance a stingray was mistaken for a shark. There were also alarms raised at Collaroy and Narrabeen on Sydney’s northern beaches, but one turned out to be a pod of dolphins.

Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA), whose members patrol 400 beaches around the country, said they always put on extra patrols in an area where an attack has occurred, but were already on extra alert at this time of year because of the increase in the amount of people flocking to the beach over the summer holidays.

SLSA spokesman Sean O’Connell said there is always an increase in shark sightings after an attack as people are more conscious of what lies in the water, but sharks are also more commonly sighted during the summer months because of the warmer water and an increase in fish coming closer to shore.

Fisheries authorities have permission to kill any shark involved in a fatal attack, or one that endangers life or is found to be menacing beachgoers. However great white sharks are a protected species, and the shark believed to be involved in the disappearance of Mr Guest has left the area, so is not being searched for.

WA Fisheries senior research scientist Rory McAuley said great white sharks are a migratory species which are protected because of their depleting population.

He said it would now be impossible to find the specific shark believed to have taken Mr Guest, and if any new shark was sighted in the same area it would need to be treated as a new animal.

There are over 160 species of sharks in Australia, and more than 100 can be found in WA.

Mr Guest’s disappearance is the second fatal shark attack in Australia this year. In April 16-year-old Peter Edmonds was killed by a great white while body boarding off Ballina, on the far north coast of NSW.

According to the Australian Shark Attack File, 56 people have died in shark attacks in Australian waters in the past 50 years.

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