A young mother mauled by a shark has briefly regained consciousness after more than a week in a coma and spoken her emotional first words.
"I love you," Leah Stewart told her mother and partner after being extubated on Tuesday, 10 days after she was bitten by a great white shark on June 13.
Ms Stewart had spent a week on life-support and about five days undergoing surgeries - including an arm amputation - with still more to come, her brother Josh wrote on a fundraising page.
"Her first thoughts were with her daughter August and wanted to check she was okay," he wrote.
"This is a lot faster than anyone expected, and for us this feels like a miracle and is everything so many of us have hoped and prayed for over the past week."
Ms Stewart, a 34-year-old teacher who is a mother to a one-year-old girl, remains in intensive care and was scheduled for another surgery on Tuesday.
A fundraiser page set up to fund her medical procedures and aid her family has garnered more than $488,000 in donations.
While she remains fighting for her life in hospital, tensions regarding sharks off Sydney's coast are running high.
A drone video circulating on social media showed what appeared to be a shark close to shore at the famous Bondi Beach.
NSW's Primary Industries department confirmed a tiger shark was detected at Bondi on Tuesday afternoon, having been tagged at Maroubra earlier that day.
Ms Stewart's attack reignited calls to cull shark populations to protect swimmers, but NSW Premier Chris Minns said the great white shark population cannot be targeted as it is protected.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has granted a temporary exemption for aerial surveillance of Coogee Beach in the wake of the attack.
The beach is about eight kilometres from Sydney Airport.
Shark nets, which are temporarily removed during the winter whale migration season, will be reinstalled at the start of September.
