The 25-year-old man had been swimming close to a boat paramedics said was off Hardy Reef, a popular dive spot north-east of Airlie Beach, when the shark attacked about 12.30pm on Monday.

It's the fourth shark attack in north Queensland waters in a little more than six months.

The man managed to swim back to the boat where crew members applied pressure to his bites and rushed him to a pontoon on the reef.

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Shane Tucker said the shark inflicted “multiple penetrating” wounds to the man’s left hip and right buttocks.

“From all reports there were no major lacerations or significant wounds as such, it was a lot of multiple teeth-like marks,” he said.

The victim was awake when he was winched off a helipad by 2.30pm, headed for Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition.

"It’s a fairly minor bite, he’s sitting up ... he was from a pontoon and I believe he was diving," an RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter spokeswoman said.

A Cruise Whitsundays spokeswoman said the actual attack happened at Line Reef, about 10 nautical miles from Hardy Reef.

She added the victim was not one of their customers, but a staff member in a small boat transferred the victim from the private boat he was on, to a nearby helipad for winching into the helicopter.

Tasmanian snorkeller Justine Barwick, 46, was the first of several shark attack victims when she was mauled on the leg and torso in Cid Harbour, off Whitsunday Island, on September 19 last year.

Melbourne girl Hannah Papps, 12, was bitten less than 24 hours after Ms Barwick in the same harbour. She was swimming with her father and sister at the time and ended up losing her leg.

Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis, 33, lost his life two months later when he was fatally mauled by a shark in the Whitsundays during a five-day cruise with fellow doctors and medical practitioners.

In January, a nine-year-old girl was bitten on her foot near Catseye Beach, off Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays, but it was later determined a toadfish had bitten her, not a shark.

LNP deputy leader Tim Mander has called for shark protections in the area.

"We've always said that people should come before sharks," he said.

"Obviously it's a public health situation but also it's a tourism issue.

"If these attacks continue to take place, this will be a major blow to tourism in this area."

- with Felicity Caldwell & Joey Cooney