Lake Kawana bull shark encounter leaves family shaken

THE sign at this southeast Queensland lake warns of the “potential for marine creatures”, and for one family the potential was terrifyingly realised.

A FAMILY swim at Lake Kawana on the Sunshine Coast could have ended in tragedy after a near-miss with a shark, the day an expert warned of bull shark attacks in the area.

The Sunshine Coast Daily reports Peta Figueiredo said her husband Nando and their six-month-old daughter Kitana were sitting in knee-high water when she heard a “massive splash” created by what she believed to be a 1.5-2m shark.

“We looked and we saw this big thing turning,” she said.

“It turned towards my husband and baby.

“I’ve only just stopped shaking, that could have been so bad.”

Amid Mrs Figueiredo screams, her family raced from the water back to safety and vowed never to return to their regular swimming spot of two years.

Nando and Peta Figueiredo were shaken by the experience. Picture: John McCutcheon

Shark expert Tony Isaacson had previously told the Sunshine Coast Daily he believed “the next major incident with a shark ... is more likely to be in a canal, estuary or managed waterway like Lake Kawana”.

Mrs Figueiredo said she warned a nearby kayaker about what she saw, but they seemed unfazed and told her they see them all the time.

The sighting has since been reported to the Sunshine Coast Council and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, with Mrs Figueiredo hoping the incident will prompt more obvious signage.

“Council have this tiny little sign,” she said.

“It doesn’t say there are sharks there and it’s not very big.”

The current signs in the area warn of “potential for marine creatures”. They have a silhouette of a shark but don’t explicitly state there are sharks in the water.

Council were contacted for comment, but the request has been passed to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries who are yet to respond.