A New Zealand shark scientist is urging swimmers and surfers to take precautions in the water as authorities across the Tasman respond to a cluster of attacks that left multiple people injured within 48 hours.
Four shark attacks struck New South Wales in under 48 hours, beginning on Sunday when a 12-year-old boy suffered critical injuries to both legs near Shark Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs. He was taken to intensive care. The following day brought two more incidents on Sydney's northern beaches within hours of each other. A 27-year-old man was left in critical condition after sustaining severe leg injuries at Manly's North Steyne Beach, while an 11-year-old boy had a fortunate escape at Dee Why when a large bite was taken from his surfboard but he was left unharmed. On Tuesday, a 39-year-old man also avoided serious injury in an attack at Point Plomer on the Mid North Coast. The New South Wales state government moved to coordinate a response alongside Northern Beaches Council and Surf Life Saving NSW.
Australian marine experts pointed to a recent bout of bad weather as a contributing factor, saying it had created ocean conditions particularly favourable to shark activity, especially bull sharks. Macquarie University marine biologist Professor Culum Brown explained that sharks are attracted to freshwater flushes that wash fish and dead animals down from rivers into coastal waters.
Dr Riley 'Shark Man' Elliott, a New Zealand shark scientist and conservationist who has run a long-standing tag-and-trace programme across the country, spoke about the incidents from a boat in Foveaux Strait. Elliott said the attacks were tragic, but also a reflection of growing population bases.
"[Great white sharks] have been protected for several decades now, and that should increase their numbers, but they do breed very slowly, so their numbers haven't exploded," he said. "Human populations have grown dramatically, and there's more water recreation, more activities, more sports, more surf appliances. Innately, there are more people in the water."
Shark attacks occur far less frequently in New Zealand than in Australia's warmer waters, though Elliott noted that local environmental conditions still create genuine risk, pointing in particular to the role of poor water visibility in driving dangerous encounters.
"Sharks don't [hunt] people," Elliott said. "Where they make mistakes is when they've been drawn into a food source, they're hungry, the visibility's poor, and then people go in the mix.
"Urbanisation, sedimentation, agriculture, all these things... our harbours used to be crystal clear, now they're muddy and gross.
"These animals are trying to hunt in that poor visual environment."
Elliott recommended avoiding entering the water after heavy rainfall, steering clear of river mouths, staying out of the water at dusk and dawn, and giving a wide berth to any ocean carcasses.
During his Fiordland expedition, Elliott had already spotted three great white sharks bearing Australian tags, underscoring how far these animals travel. "Equally, some of the sharks I've tagged down here have gone to Australia, so they move very big distances," he said.
A diver was flown to hospital last April after being bitten by a shark, presumed to be a great white, at Dusky Sound in Fiordland National Park. Shark sightings have also been reported in Auckland, Christchurch, and Whangārei in recent weeks.
"If we want to co-exist in nature, we need to understand it, we need to respect it, we need to take care of it," Elliott said.
