Sydney - A large shark was an uninvited guest Wednesday at a memorial service on a west-coast beach for a 51-year-old Australian who is believed to have been killed there by a shark last week.

Bathers at Port Kennedy Beach, south of Perth, were ordered out of the water and the 250 guests at the memorial service watched as a spotter helicopter circled after the sighting.

"It was a freak accident and we are in their territory," a relative of Brian Guest told Australia's ABC Radio. "He was a man of the sea. We are just glad he went on the ocean. It was his passion."

Surf Life Saving Western Australia has been conducting shark patrols daily at Port Kennedy Beach since Guest was taken. (dpa)