The ocean has always been a big part of Glen Butler’s life.
He’s been a surfer for 50 years and, in that time, he says he rarely thought about sharks.
“You’re aware you’re stepping into their environment, so you’re cautious,” the 61-year-old told the BBC.
But Mr Butler’s confidence on the water was shattered last month.
He’d gone for a surf with his friends one Saturday morning at Long Reef in Sydney’s northern beaches. A few minutes after Mr Butler got out of the water, fellow surfer Mercury Psillakis was killed by a great white shark.
“It’s shaken us up a bit,” Mr Butler admits. Mercury and his twin brother Mike were well-known in the local community, he adds: “You’d always say g’day.”
The killing has revived a long-running and delicate debate about how to keep beachgoers safe in Australia’s waters, and turned the spotlight on the state of New South Wales (NSW).
Authorities here have a range of measures in their arsenal to mitigate the risk of shark attacks, but the most famous – and most controversial – are nets which are rolled out each summer at many beaches.
Conservationists say the nets do more harm than good – doing little to stop sharks reaching popular breaks and causing massive harm to other marine life – but many scared beachgoers remain attached to them as another layer of protection.
Australia deadliest place for shark attacks
Australia is home to some of the world’s best beaches. More than 80% of the population lives on the coast, so an early morning swim or surf is standard for thousands of people every day.
But there are people who feel that daily ritual is becoming increasingly risky.
Mirek Craney is one of them.
The 66-year-old Sydneysider remembers gawking at enormous great white sharks hauled in by fishermen as a kid, back in the days the now-protected species could still be legally hunted.
Seeing these dead beasts suspended by their tails elicited a “gallows-like” feeling, he recounts, but not fear. Sharks were creatures of the deep ocean, he reasoned, and he surfed in the shallower bays.
But five years ago, his daughter Anika was bitten by a pig eye shark while free-diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Though she survived, it made Mr Craney anxious about the creatures – something that grows with each splashy headline about an attack.
“These things trigger me… I’m freaked out,” he admits.
Though ‘Merc’ was only the second person killed by a shark attack in Sydney over the past six decades – the other being British diver Simon Nellist in 2022 – it’s little comfort to those who regularly use the city’s beaches.
Every surfer the BBC spoke to in the weeks after Psillakis’ death said they feel shark sightings closer to shore are becoming more frequent.
“We occasionally might have seen a dark shadow, but it could have been a dolphin,” says Mr Craney. “Now, I see them all the time.”
Some fear that shark numbers are exploding, after several types – including the world’s two deadliest shark species, great whites and tigers – were given varying degrees of protection in Australian waters.
There’s little research on shark numbers to definitively tell either way – but experts argue an increase in sightings doesn’t necessarily mean there are more sharks.
Environmental experts suggest that warming oceans are changing the swimming and feeding patterns of sharks. But researchers say any increase in sightings is largely down to more and more people entering the water, and they are magnified by social media.
The likelihood of being bitten by a shark here in Australia is still minute. You’re several thousand times more likely to drown. It is true, however, that the country is a shark attack hotspot.
Shark incidents in Australia over the past five years
It is second only to the US – a country with 13 times the people – for shark bites, and it leads the world for fatal attacks, according to the International Shark Attack File.
That database only tracks “unprovoked” incidents – excluding those potentially encouraged by humans through activities such as spear fishing – but a fuller database of all recorded shark interactions in Australia is maintained by Taronga Conservation Society.
It shows that shark attacks have broadly been increasing over recent decades. Already this year there have been four fatal attacks – all unprovoked.
Nets ‘like a napkin in a pool’
NSW had been about to trial scaling back its use of shark nets – its oldest shark safety method – when the latest fatal attack happened.
Shark nets have been used in NSW since 1937 and these days are usually installed on 51 beaches from September through to March. Aside from Queensland, it is the only state that still uses them.
It’s impossible to cordon off entire beaches – ocean conditions are too strong and would simply wash the nets away.
Instead, the shark nets are about 150m (492ft) long and sit a few metres below the water’s surface. Though anchored to the sea floor at points, they don’t reach the bottom. So sharks can go over, under and around them.
“It’s like throwing a napkin into the pool,” University of Sydney Professor Chris Pepin-Neff told the BBC.
The state government says shark nets are “not designed to create a total barrier between bathers and sharks” but rather aim to “intercept target sharks” during any hunts which bring them close to the shore.
But researchers like Prof Pepin-Neff say the nets aren’t very effective, and give the illusion of safety rather than delivering a real reduction in risk.
They note that 40% of sharks caught in the nets are actually found on the beach side trying to get out.
