Hungry two-metre shark swims along a Byron Bay beach among surfers and tourists blissfully unaware how close they are to potential death
- A shark has been filmed just metres from surfers and the shore in Byron Bay
- Drone footage captured Tuesday morning shows two-metre fish cruising
- Dozens of surfers can be seen in the background unsuspecting to the creature
A shark has been filmed just metres from surfers and the shore as it glides through the shallows in Byron Bay.
Drone footage from Sunday morning shows the two-metre fish cruising up and down the beach.
Dozens of surfers in the background ride the waves, unsuspecting to the inquisitive creature below the surface, while tourists paddle close to shore.
A shark has been filmed just metres from surfers and the shore as it glides through the shallows in Byron Bay
The juvenile shark doesn’t appear to be interested in any of the surfers, instead stalking the shallower water for fish.
The area between Byron Bay and Evans Head, particularly Ballina and Lennox Head, is known for hosting lots of big sharks.
New SMART drumlines off the popular surf spots in the northern New South Wales coast have seen hundreds of sharks tagged and released.
Contractors tagged 14 great whites in a four-day span alone in July last year.
‘SMART’ is an acronym for Shark-Management-Alert-in-Real-Time. Once a shark is caught by a drumline, catchers are immediately alerted.
They then go by boat to the shark, tag it, and release it 1km away from shore.
The drone footage captured on Tuesday morning shows the two-metre fish cruising up and down the beach
The area between Byron Bay and Evans Head, particularly Ballina and Lennox Head, are known for hosting lots of big sharks
The DPI is also using drones to detect sharks, with SharkSmart saying: ‘Drones are the future for localised beach surveillance.’
Shark attacks decreased in 2020 for the third-consecutive year, but it was the deadliest year since 2013 with 12 bites resulting in fatalities, more than the four-per-year average.
Eight of those deaths were in Australia alone, making it comfortably the most deadly spot for shark attacks, five ahead of the US.
This suggests commercial overfishing is leading bigger, hungrier sharks closer to the shore and the people swimming and surfing on the world’s beaches.
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