TRANSCRIPT
It was the worst nightmare of many parents in Sydney.
On Sunday afternoon, a 12-year-old boy was attacked by a shark at Nielsen Park in Sydney Harbour, a heritage-listed site in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
He's sustained critical injuries and fighting for life in hospital.
Commander of New South Wales Police Marine Area Command Joe McNulty says the boy received first aid by a police officer who had a first-aid kit with him.
"He saw the boy bleeding from the lower limbs and applied two tourniquets not one, to two different limbs to stem the bleeding. That young boy on the rock shelf was unconscious at the time, he had been bitten by a large shark."
Mr McNulty says the boy was jumping off from a six-metre rock shelf when the attack occurred.
He praised his teenage friends for acting quickly to pull the boy out of waters, despite the confronting scene.
"What we can confirm is one boy definitely entered the water to pull his mate out, another boy assisted them up from the water onto the rock platform, and that was just before police occurred. So those actions of those young men are brave under the circumstances, and very confronting injuries for those boys who've seen it. I supposed it's mateship."
Mr McNulty says the heavy rainfall in Sydney over the weekend could have caused the attack.
"The harbour as you know and you can see is Brackish, it's full of freshwater at the moment due to the amount of rain we've had over the weekend. A lot of rainfall, a lot of fresh water. We believe a combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the action of the splashing, may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack yesterday."
Less than 24 hours later, another shark attack occurred on Dee Why Beach, one of Sydney's northern beaches.
An 11-year-old boy had his surfboard bitten by a shark, but luckily the boy managed to escape.
The beach was closed on Monday afternoon.
A piece of the boy's board has been sent to New South Wales Fisheries to help identify the shark.
Witnesses have reported it was a bull shark - possibly 1.5 metres long.
Police are urging swimmers to stay out of Sydney Harbour in the wake of the attack.
Since 2020, there have been 23 fatal shark attacks in Australia.
But according to Dr Venessa Pirotta, one of Australia's leading wildlife experts, sharks' interactions with humans remain very rare.
She says climate change, population growth and better media coverage on shark attacks may result in what looks like a more frequent interaction between sharks and humans.
Dr Pirotta says beach swimmers need to pay extra attention to the changing environment before getting into the waters.
"When swimming in the harbour or anywhere in Australian waters, we need to be mindful that it's a very changing and dynamic environment. And over the weekend, we saw large amount of rain, which means that water quality in Sydney Harbour would be likely to change, and as a result, that may mean change of prey movement, potential shark movement as well."
For New South Wales beach goers, she says it's important to check the New South Wales Shark Smart website.
"This is provided by scientists and advises general beach goers information about how to be shark smart. And one of those messaging is making sure you keep out of the water when they are dawn and dusk periods as well as keeping out of the water across overnight or dark periods, and at times after rainfall."
