Fisherman spots shark as dogs swim nearby at inner west park
A fisherman has recalled the moment he spotted a bull shark meters away from where dogs were swimming in the river at an inner west park on Wednesday.
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A fisherman has recalled the moment he spotted a bull shark meters away from where dogs were swimming in a river at an inner west park on Wednesday.
Bruce Brown said he was sitting at Rodd Park in Five Dock about 10.30am when he spotted a shark fin gliding through the water about 10 to 15 meters offshore.
“We were sitting in the carpark watching a lady throwing a stick into the water for her Jack Russels and the next minute we spotting a fin coming towards the shore,” Mr Brown said.
“I ran down to the water to tell her to get her dogs out the water and she said she saw it too.”
By the position of its dorsal and tailfin, he believed the animal to be a juvenile bull shark.
“That size shark would probably take a leg off a dog rather than eat it so it was a small shark but then where was mum?”
The 82-year-old has been a fisherman all his life and had seen bull sharks “a few years back” at Abbotsford Point and Hen and Chicken Bay.
“It would be close on 60 years ago that my friend’s father caught a shark in his prawning net off Henry Lawson Park in Abbotsford.
“At 3.6 metres he was a big fella and I never went prawning where I waded waist or shoulder deep in the inner west ever again.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Primary Industries said bull shark tagging research currently being undertaken in Sydney Harbour “has not indicated any greater numbers present this year than in previous years”.
“The presence of sharks in Sydney Harbour should not alarm people, it suggests that these systems are healthy,” she said.
The DPI is actively tracking 329 White Sharks, 55 Tiger Sharks and 78 Bull Sharks so people can be informed of their location via the Shark Smart app and website.
William Figueira, an Associate Professor in marine animal biology at the University of Sydney, said the shark Mr Brown saw was most likely to a bull shark or dusky whaler.
“It wouldn’t be a Wobbegong or Port Jackson shark because they tend to swim at the bottom rather than at the surface,” Prof Figueira said.
“Bull sharks are what we call Cosmopolitan sharks because they have a greater tolerance for water with low salinity like rivers and lakes so they can handle freshwater.”
DPI research had found bull sharks are more common around the harbour in summer than winter, he said.
Prof Figueira said while research has shown bull sharks are active in the harbour when people are boating and swimming in the summer months, it hasn’t correlated to an increase in attacks.
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“Yes there are bull sharks in Sydney Harbour and yes sometimes there are big ones and they are there when most people are in the water but despite that, we are not seeing more attacks,” he said.
“I can’t say I know of an incident where a shark has eaten a dog but I wouldn’t criticise anyone for getting their dog out of the water if they saw a shark swimming past.
“Sharks tend to bite and then realise they aren’t interested and swim away so I suppose the same thing could happen to a dog, which is a bit smaller than a human.
“So the injury a dog could sustain is probably more likely to kill it.”
Check out the latest shark sightings and tagged shark detections by downloading the SharkSmart app or going online: sharksmart.nsw.gov.au
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