New South Wales<\/a> department of primary industries said locals \u201cwill have noticed the increasing detections of white sharks on our tagged shark listening stations\u201d but noted \u201cthis is not an uncommon occurrence at this time of year\u201d.<\/p>\nMarine biologist and shark expert Rob Harcourt \u2013 a regular swimmer at Bondi \u2013 said it was the \u201cpeak time of year when they swim past\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey follow the Australian salmon, which migrate up the coast,\u201d the Macquarie University emeritus professor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there are big balls of salmon off the beaches right now. Multiple shark species are coming in to feed on the salmon, because they\u2019re big, fat, juicy and full of calories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coogee beach, where Leah Stewart was attacked by a shark earlier in June. Photograph: Anna Kucera\/AAP<\/p>\n
Prof Culum Brown, the head of the Fish Lab at Macquarie University, said most sightings or interactions with great whites involved juveniles, which typically move along the NSW coast in late autumn and early winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe adults are often out in the ocean. They travel big, big distances and spend a lot of time offshore,\u201d Brown said. \u201cJuveniles tend to be far more coastal, and they also move up and down reasonably, predictably.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said that after a certain growth period, juvenile sharks begin \u201cexperimenting\u201d with their food sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey switch from a fish-oriented diet, and they start incorporating things like seals and turtles and bigger things \u2026 and unfortunately, occasionally they approach swimmers and snorkelers, divers, more often than not, spearfishermen, and of course, the surfers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Something\u2019s quite different\u2019<\/p>\n
Eugene Tan has lived in Bondi for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old photographer carries a camera to capture the local environment from the sand or in the water almost every day.<\/p>\n
Tan was among the locals ushered away from the beach when Bondi\u2019s shark alarm blared on Tuesday. When the siren sounded, one of his two teenage sons was in the water.<\/p>\n
Eugene Tan says he has never seen a great white shark in the bay at Bondi in three decades of taking photographs. Photograph: Eugene Tan\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a parent, you worry that something happens. But they came in. The lifeguards called everyone in and said \u2018it\u2019s a great white, take it seriously\u2019,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n
Tan said he had \u201cnever physically seen a great white shark in the bay\u201d at Bondi during his three decades of taking photographs.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see through that [Drone Shark App] that one has been visiting the bay every day for three days in a row is pretty crazy. I mean, it\u2019s unprecedented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tan and his family have \u201cnever not gone in the ocean\u201d, but the local said this week it \u201cfeels like something\u2019s quite different\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole family\u2019s not in the ocean. The risk is just too high, and especially with a white pointer \u2026 it\u2019s kind of the pinnacle of threat in the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tan photographs from a helicopter. Photograph: Eugene Tan\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said this week that the government would be rolling out \u201cworld-leading\u201d shark drones across more of the state\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be using technology that\u2019s available, but hasn\u2019t been rolled out at scale anywhere in the world, not in California, not in Florida, [nor South Africa] \u2026 places where you\u2019ve got developed world economies, large tourism populations and sharks,\u201d Minns said on Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019ll be first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harcourt said that was a good thing, and while it would come with a cost, it was one worth paying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not only make people feel safer, but it will probably ensure that they are safer,\u201d the professor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what it will also mean is that we spend less time in the water. With more drones in the air, you\u2019ll spot those sharks that were always there, but just weren\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who was attacked by a great white shark at Sydney\u2019s Coogee beach is no longer in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-759213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759213","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=759213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}