Palm Beach ocean pool swimmers oblivious to dusky whaler shark swimming underneath them
SWIMMERS at a northern beaches ocean pool were shocked to find they had been swimming with a shark today with one woman totally unaware of its presence until she was leaving. WATCH THE VIDEO
Manly
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IT’S not every day you see a shark lapping it up in an ocean swimming pool — but that’s exactly what happened at Palm Beach on Tuesday.
Much to the bemusement of local beachgoers, the dusky whaler was spotted swimming about in the popular pool — with other swimmers — in the morning before being rescued and released into the ocean at about 2.30pm.
Before the rescue, Bilgola’s Jennifer Hill said she was swimming in the pool for over an hour before she realised —after being alerted by a bystander — there was a shark joining her for some morning laps.
“My initial response was obviously it wasn’t very hungry because it had ample opportunity,” she joked. “It was a beautiful experience.
“Everybody who swam in the pool this morning didn’t know… except one person.”
Manly Sea Life Sanctuary’s Hope Nugent was among the people who helped rescue the shark, which she estimated was 80-90cm long.
“We don’t know how it ended up in the pool, but there have been high tides and sometimes they come in on the high tide,” she said.
“You do tend to get other animals, such as stingrays (ending up in ocean pools), but it’s quite infrequent for sharks to get caught in there.”
Ms Nugent said the juvenile shark, which she assumed had been there overnight, was no risk to humans.
She said there were initial concerns for the animal’s welfare but, once it was released, rescuers were “confident it swam off” without any problems.
“They do get stressed and there is lactic acid in their bodies they need to release.”
She said the whole process to capture and release the shark only took about a minute.
Avalon’s Rita Kluge took some incredible photos of the shark.
“I couldn’t wait to jump in but I wasn’t allowed,” she said.
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