In a city of more than 100 beaches, swimming and surfing are part of Sydney’s lifeblood. But four shark bites in New South Wales in 48 hours – three of which were in Sydney – have rattled even some of the city’s most seasoned ocean users.
On Sunday afternoon, a 12-year-old boy was left fighting for his life after being bitten on a harbour beach in Vaucluse in Sydney’s east. On Monday morning, an 11-year-old’s surfboard was bitten multiple times at Dee Why in the city’s north, while that afternoon, a 27-year-old man was bitten while surfing in Manly, less than 5km away.
“Sydneysiders are ingrained with surfing and beach activities as part of their life and it does feel like a piece of you gets stripped away when something like this happens,” says Matt Chojnacki, a lifelong Sydney surfer.
After three attacks in quick succession, the big wave surfer and coach decided to leave the city to find what he hoped would be less risky waves to the north. On the road on Tuesday morning, he heard news of the fourth attack on a beach less than 15km from his destination
– a 39-year-old man was bitten at Point Plomer on the state’s mid-north coast, about five hours north of Sydney.
“It’s so alarming. It seems like a once-in-a-decade anomaly,” Chojnacki says. “At the moment, I’m less scared of surfing the biggest waves in the world than I am of shark attacks on my local beaches.
“No one’s surfing today. I’ve cancelled everything. There’s a sudden shock because surfing, as much as it’s a sport, is actually part escapism. It’s the feeling of being immersed in a changing environment that makes surfing so serene – and having the fear of dying in such a violent and graphic way is a polar opposite to that. It’s what’s been keeping me up at night.”
It’s not a new fear to the tight-knit surf community. Chojnacki lives across the road from Long Reef surf spot in Sydney’s north, where his friend Mercury Psillakis, a 57-year-old father, was fatally mauled in September.
In the weeks after, Surf Life Saving NSW provided extra aerial and on-water surveillance at nearby surf competitions for surfers who felt “vulnerable and apprehensive about returning to the water”, Tim Quinn, co-president of Queenscliff Boardriders, said at the time.
That vulnerability is again leaving beaches and waves empty along the east coast. At least 28 beaches remain closed in Sydney, while beaches from Town beach to Crescent Head on the mid-north coast of NSW have also been shut.
Rob Harcourt, emeritus professor of marine ecology at Macquarie University, usually surfs at Bondi or North Steyne in Manly – the site of Monday afternoon’s incident – every day.
On Tuesday morning, the shark expert’s usual surf with friends and colleagues at North Steyne was cancelled.
“I haven’t got in the water today. It’s only human – it would just be foolish to rush back into the water when you can just leave it for a few days,” he says.
Harcourt plans to avoid the water for the remainder of the week or until it is clear. Murky water, brought about by heavy rainfall, has long been associated with an increased risk of shark activity.
“Go for a run instead. If you can’t see what’s happening in the water, that’s a good sign not to go in,” he says.
That message was echoed by SLSNSW’s chief executive, Steven Pearce, who urged beachgoers to avoid unsafe beaches and “just go to a local pool”.
The incidents come in the middle of Sydney’s ocean and harbour swimming season – competitive open water events that draw thousands of swimmers.
Big Swim at Whale beach in the northern beaches on 25 January was cancelled by organisers on Tuesday. “This is only the second occasion in 52 years that we have had to cancel the event,” a spokesperson said.
The Sydney Harbour Splash, due to be held in Rose Bay, close to Vaucluse, on 26 January, was cancelled “out of deep respect for the young boy who was tragically attacked” on Sunday, organisers wrote on Facebook on Monday.
Sydney’s largest ocean swim, the Cole Classic in Manly, remains scheduled to go ahead on 1 February.
“For this year’s event, we have further strengthened our resources, including the addition of two extra Surf Life Saving NSW drones. This doubles our drone capability and enhances our marine search and rescue, incident response, wildlife surveillance and beach assessment capacity”, organisers said via Facebook.
