{"id":185780,"date":"2025-10-02T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185780\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:43:10","slug":"bull-shark-numbers-expected-to-rise-says-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185780\/","title":{"rendered":"Bull shark numbers expected to rise, says scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A shark scientist predicts the number of bull sharks in the Swan River will climb over the coming months, a week after a school of the animals forced the closure of City of Fremantle beaches.<\/p>\n<p>The school was spotted near the old Fremantle Traffic Bridge near the site where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watoday.com.au\/national\/western-australia\/shark-barrier-up-on-perth-s-swan-river-20231211-p5eqnj.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">16-year-old Stella Berry was killed by a bull shark in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The sightings were reported to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, which sent a boat out to tag the sharks as part of its broader shark tracking program initiated after Stella\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>However, Australian Marine Conservation Society scientist Dr Leo Guida said it was likely bull shark numbers in the Swan would increase as the weather heated up \u2013 which was a positive sign for the river\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHealthy numbers of sharks are crucial for healthy ecosystems on which many of us depend on for work, play and culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Loading<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA number of factors could be driving schooling behaviour, including the presence and variety of prey items \u2013 the reasons why these very areas have been popular with fishers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we head into the warmer months, bull sharks will increasingly use coastal and estuarine habitats to feed and pup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnderstanding the population size, where, when and how they move are all crucial elements that can better inform safety and ecologically responsible management of Australian fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shark scientist predicts the number of bull sharks in the Swan River will climb over the coming&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-185780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}