Ballina shark spotter Tim Latimer says he's never seen Great Whites in the numbers he's observed this year.
The helicopter pilot is helping prevent more attacks in northern NSW by alerting authorities when he sees sharks near swimmers or surfers.
It's a mostly volunteer role he carries out as his chopper business conducts its pilot training and scenic flights over the coastline that stretches from Ballina north to Byron Bay.
His helicopters are fitted with communications equipment so he can alert police and surf authorities about potentially dangerous encounters.
"This year is the first time we've seen the numbers of Great Whites we're seeing, very large sharks," he says.
Four or five can be spotted in a single flight, but they're not always near swimmers or surfers.
When he does spot dangerous situations, he uses his noisy chopper to swoop low over the water to warn people, while also calling authorities who send in jet boats and jet skis to chase the sharks out to sea.
Ballina Mayor David Wright says the community owes Mr Latimer a great debt for a job he does primarily on a volunteer basis.
Mr Latimer is not in the air with his business on Sundays so council pays his company to do an hour of surveillance on that day each week.
The mayor says the NSW government has pledged money for extra aerial surveillance over the summer holidays, but the latest attack, on Tuesday evening, shows it's needed now.
"We need it between now and Christmas. The sharks are still going to be here," he said.
There have been 14 attacks in NSW so far this year, and nine of those have happened along a 70km stretch of coast from from Evans Head to Byron Bay.
Ballina, in the middle, has had five attacks at its beaches alone, including the fatal mauling of Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara at Shelly Beach in February.
The latest attack on Tuesday saw surfer Sam Morgan, 20, mauled by a bull shark off Ballina's Lighthouse Beach. He's in hospital with serious leg injuries.
