{"id":313613,"date":"2025-11-28T04:38:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313613\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T04:38:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:38:06","slug":"beaches-reopen-after-bull-shark-kills-swiss-tourist-with-police-reviewing-gopro-footage-from-scene-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313613\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaches reopen after bull shark kills Swiss tourist with police reviewing GoPro footage from scene | Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shark that attacked two people on a remote New South Wales<\/a> beach \u2013 killing a woman and wounding her partner \u2013 is unlikely to pose an ongoing threat, experts say.<\/p>\n

Police are reviewing GoPro footage from the scene, which may shed more light on how the attack unfolded.<\/p>\n

A Swiss couple were swimming at Kylies beach in the Crowdy Bay national park at dawn on Thursday when a 3-metre bull shark<\/a> attacked the woman and then her partner when he tried to save her.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called at about 6.30am.<\/p>\n

The woman, 25, died at the scene, while the man, 26, was airlifted to John Hunter hospital where he was in a stable condition, the hospital confirmed on Friday.<\/p>\n

Surf Life Saving NSW said Kylies and nearby North Haven and Crowdy Bay beaches reopened at 12.30pm on Friday.<\/p>\n

The beaches were reopened \u201cfollowing increased jet ski and drone surveillance since the incident \u2026 which has not identified any concerning marine life in the vicinity\u201d, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAhead of the weekend, and noting the forecast hot temperatures that will attract large crowds to the beaches, drones will continue to provide shark surveillance to the area, particularly at Camden Haven and Crowdy Head, with nippers set to go ahead as scheduled on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NSW Ambulance Insp Kirran Mowbray told the Nine Network on Friday that \u201cthe shark has attacked the female first, and her partner has done everything he could to get them both into shore and yell out for assistance to a bystander who was there\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mowbray said the bystander used her swimmers as a tourniquet, tying them around the man\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s essentially saved his life and bought him time before [paramedics] can get there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Brianna Le Busque, an environmental science and psychology researcher from the University of South Australia, said she was \u201cshocked\u201d to hear about the double attack and worried it would spark comparisons to the movie Jaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe really important part is to wait until we know more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil then, it\u2019s a really horrific freak incident, but there\u2019s no indication that this shark will keep biting humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parallels with Jaws are so interesting, this idea that instantly we must \u2018get that particular shark\u2019, and we know that\u2019s not an effective strategy. It\u2019s likely this shark felt particularly threatened, something happened, that\u2019s why it lashed out twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists have disputed whether there is such a thing as a \u201cproblem shark<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rob Harcourt, emeritus professor of marine ecology at Macquarie University, said on Thursday that a double attack was \u201cquite unusual<\/a>\u201d but could happen while sharks were hunting prey and trying to deter competitors.<\/p>\n

The Swiss consul general confirmed in a statement that one Swiss national died and another was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in contact with the local authorities and are supporting the relatives within the framework of consular protection,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive, Steven Pearce, told 2GB radio that the \u201creally, really terrible\u201d incident happened in an area so remote that there were no life guard services.<\/p>\n

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The MidCoast council mayor, Claire Pontin, \u201cexpressed her sadness at the loss of life and extended her condolences to the families involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Primary Industries deployed five \u201csmart\u201d drumlines at Kylies beach after the attack.<\/p>\n

The drumlines send alerts when sharks or other marine animals take a baited hook. The shark is then tagged, relocated 1km offshore and tracked.<\/p>\n

The department said it \u201cextends sincere condolences to the family and friends and first responders at this tragic time\u201d and said no sharks have been caught on the drumlines at Crowdy Bay or at Port Macquarie to the north or Forster to the south since the incident, and that there had been no drone shark sightings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on forensic analysis, DPIRD shark scientists have determined that a large bull shark over three metres in length was likely to have been involved,\u201d the department said on Friday.<\/p>\n

NSW uses other technology including shark nets, helicopters and \u201clistening stations\u201d to monitor sharks and prevent attacks, and beachgoers were advised to follow the NSW SharkSmart app.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other NSW beaches were closed on Friday after numerous bull shark sightings, along with bait ball sightings, where schools of fish group together to form a defensive, tight mass to deter predators.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease continue to be alert if swimming or surfing with the heightened shark activity, especially in light of the tragic fatal incident nearby earlier today at Kylies Beach,\u201d Port Macquarie Hastings ALS Lifeguards<\/a> said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

In September, Mercury Psillakis was fatally mauled by a 3.5m great white at Long Reef beach in Sydney.<\/p>\n

At the time<\/a>, experts said there had been an increase in shark bites because more people were using the water for more of the year, along with other factors including climate change, habitat depletion, weather anomalies and distribution of prey.<\/p>\n

But the number of deaths has not increased thanks to faster emergency responses, tourniquet kits at surf lifesaving clubs and better first aid training.<\/p>\n

According to NSW\u2019s SharkSmart advice, swimmers should take extra care at dawn and dusk, when bull and tiger sharks are more active, swim between the flags at patrolled beaches and be aware of water conditions and any safety signs or alarms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shark that attacked two people on a remote New South Wales beach \u2013 killing a woman and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-313613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313613","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=313613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}