First weekend of spring on Manly beach at sunrise: Dara Herlihy pictured swimming in the beach pool between Manly and Shelly Beach.
BEWARE. It turns out sharks like going to the same beaches as you, at the same time.
Partial to the balmy summer waters of Sydney Harbour, notoriously dangerous bull sharks are swarming into the city’s estuaries where some of our most popular swimming spots play host to blissfully unaware locals diving with death.
This week The Daily Telegraph surveyed a number of unmeshed beaches around Sydney where people were enjoying the sun and the still harbour waters despite the potential risk.
Swimmers at locations including Little Sirius Cove in Mosman, Kutti and Gibson beaches in Vaucluse and Shelley Beach near Manly were flirting with danger — and happy to do so.
No nets: Kutti Beach, Vaucluse - but people are happy to swim there. Photo: Bob Barker.Source:News Corp Australia
Project manager Dara Herlihy, 34, swims in the unmeshed waters off Shelly Beach and said he’s never worried despite his mates regularly spotting bull sharks in the area.
“Half the attraction of swimming at Shelly Beach is seeing the wildlife,” he says.
“I always see Port Jackson sharks, wobbegongs, and I’ve certainly got mates who have seen bull sharks.
“It’s about safety in numbers, when you’re surrounded by 20, 30, 200 people, the sharks aren’t going to do anything.”
“It’s about safety in numbers, when you’re surrounded by 20, 30, 200 people, the sharks aren’t going to do anything”
Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair urged caution to Sydneysiders keen for a dip in some of our most idyllic settings.
“Sharks are a natural part of healthy oceanic and estuarine environments. But the NSW government is leaving no stone unturned to put in measures right up and down the state’s coast to better protect beachgoers,” he said.
“Swim at a patrolled beach, between the flags; avoid swimming in canals and rivers or harbour mouths.”
People are not afraid to swim at non shark netted beaches such as Gibson's Beach, Vaucluse. Photo: Bob Barker.Source:News Corp Australia
While the government has installed nets at 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong, many of Sydney’s most frequented harbour swimming spots are just as inviting to cold-blooded predators as they are to bathers, with nothing preventing sharks swimming almost to shore.
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At unmeshed beaches near Wollongong this week, hammerhead sharks were seen swimming in water just 1m deep.
But it’s the city-slicking bull sharks — known for their aggression and power — that Sydneysiders need to fear.
Kogarah siblings Serafina Paletto, 12, and Raphael Paletto, 9, with dog Chewy, at Little Sirius Cove, which is set to have a shark net installed. Picture: Dylan RobinsonSource:News Corp Australia
“They go all over the harbour, literally all over,” marine biologist Rob Harcourt said.
“Bull sharks are estuarine animals. They are very tolerant of low salinity and they like the warm.
“They spend the summer months up the estuaries around Sydney and then move north for the winter.”
212 shark attacks in NSW over the past 100 years
Mr Harcourt said shark attacks were exceptionally rare only because bull sharks are often intimidated by the size and shape of humans and more interested in seafood.
“We’re not a source of food at all,” he said.
“We’re a terrestrial primate and sharks like all predators are wary about other things that are bigger than them. People seem to forget that we’re one of the biggest animals on Earth.”
According to Taronga Zoo, which has catalogued 212 shark attacks in NSW over the past 100 years, swimmers should also avoid dirty and muddy waters around Sydney Harbour.
“Put it this way — if I saw one, I wouldn’t jump in the water and pat one”
“Do not swim, dive or surf where dangerous sharks are known to congregate,” the guidelines read.
“Do not swim in dirty or turbid water (and) avoid entering the ocean near a river mouth, especially after a rainstorm.”
Despite the huge number of sharks and a pattern of increasing water activity by swimmers in Sydney’s estuaries, shark attacks remain rare.
The 14 unprovoked shark attacks in NSW in 2015 counted for more than the three previous years combined.
Despite the odds, attacks do happen.
In 2009 naval clearance diver able seaman Paul De Gelder suffered a horrifying attack during a training exercise near Garden Island, Woolloomooloo in which he lost an arm and a leg.
“Bull sharks can be aggressive. Of the sharks, they are implicated in more attacks than most,” Mr Harcourt said.
“Put it this way — if I saw one, I wouldn’t jump in the water and pat one.”
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