The Western Australia state government Sunday set tuna as bait for great white sharks in the area, hoping to end a string of deadly attacks that have spiked in the past few weeks, including a Saturday incident that left a 32-year-old engineer from Texas dead.

George Thomas Wainwright -- a passionate diver who moved to Australia five months ago to take a new job -- was killed in a shark attack after diving off a boat a few miles west of Perth.

"He did more in 32 years than a lot of people do in a lifetime," his father George Wainwright said. "Thomas loved the water ever since he was a little boy. He loved the water. He was very cautious... that didn't stop him from what he was passionate about.

An animal protection group SHARK (Showing Animals Respect And Kindness) wants Tom Cruise to reject the part of a rodeo champion in the planned movie Paper Wings, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Cruise – who is currently filming Mission Impossible 4 in Prague – has been linked to Sony Pictures rodeo-driven love story alongside Reese Witherspoon. Gabriele Muccino is also attached as director.

PHOTOS: Tom Cruise Looks Impossibly Good On MI4 Set

The Discovery Channel kicks off cable TV's most highly-anticipated event -- Shark Week -- with Ultimate Air Jaws, a crystal-clear look into a series of shark attacks.

Scary Photo Gallery

This year, producers will incorporate the use of HD, providing so much detail you can literally count every tooth in the shark’s mouth. With a camera that shoots in super slow motion -- 2,000 frames per second -- viewers can watch slowed-down, picture-perfect images of a breaching shark.

Reality TV: Gia Of You’re Cut Off

Technology also plays a key role in another Shark Week special, Into The Shark Bite, in which viewers can watch the power of a shark bite from extraordinary angles filmed with the latest high-speed, high-definition cameras. Yes, Shark Week takes you literally, inside the jaws of sharks.

Key info in this year’s Shark Week will detail how shark attacks can happen, and what you can learn to do so that neither you nor the shark gets hurt; testimonials from six shark attack survivors; and a montage of some of the most jaw-dropping moments from past specials to learn amazing feats, facts and science from the world of sharks.

Shark Week kicks off with Ultimate Air Jaws Sunday, August 1 at 9/8c.