What lurks beneath: Schools of bulls sharks in popular Gold Coast waterway

DIVERS, surfers, boaties and anglers beware. Schools of up to 45 bull sharks have been spotted lurking in one of the Gold Coast’s busiest waterways.

SCHOOLS of up to 45 bull sharks have been spotted lurking in one of the city’s busiest waterways.

Unusually warmer ocean temperatures could be drawing the predators into local rivers to drop litters of up to 13 young earlier in the year than usual.

Diver Ian Banks swims the Southport Seaway almost every day and said he recently saw giant schools of bull sharks.

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“I have seen big schools of 45 bull sharks out there at one time,” he said.

“You usually have to sneak up on them, but they’re there all the time.”

Marine Expert Ian Banks of the Gold Coast with Dr Healy Hamilton of the USA and the chief scientist for NatureSearch pictured at The Spit. Picture: Mike Batterham

Southern Cross University shark researcher Danny Bucher said the Southport Seaway – popular with divers, surfers, boaties and anglers – was a shark hot spot.

“The Gold Coast Seaway is a super estuary for the sharks,” he said.

“I know that divers see the sharks predictably in the Seaway.

“Sharks are known to gather but these are not co-ordinated groups of sharks.

“They might gather in the one spot because it could have been advantageous for either food or breeding purposes.”

The sharks favour warmer summer waters and the species of shark that can survive in freshwater is being spotted daily in rivers and waterways in South East Queensland and Northern NSW.

A shadow of a bull shark. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Dr Bucher said the larger female sharks, which grew up to 2.5m, travelled upstream to drop off young in warm, protected estuaries.

He said the sharks could travel so far upstream they had been caught in freshwater as far inland as Lismore.

“I would not be surprised if people are seeing more of them earlier than usual because of warm water,” he said.

The bull shark has a vicious record and was responsible for attacking 20-year-old Ballina surfer Sam Morgan in Ballina this month.

The creatures have been seen jumping out of the water on a daily basis in the Richmond River, near where Mr Morgan was attacked.

Ballina angler and apprentice electrician Mitch Lang said he took video earlier this week of what appears to be a large bull shark lurking near Pimlico Island in the Richmond River.

Bull sharks occupy our Gold Coast canals. Photo: Eupen Hjalmby via Gold Coast Weather & News Together

The 24-year-old was checking his crab pots on Wednesday afternoon when the “big shark” was seen cruising downstream with its dorsal fin out of the water.

“I’ve seen heaps of sharks jumping in the river mouth at low tide and after rain,” he said.

“We’re always pulling in jewfish with chunks missing out of them (after being partially eaten by bull sharks on the way in) but I’ve never seen a shark swim along like that.”

Mr Lang said he followed the animal in his car at “about jogging speed” along the river for about 500m.

“He was a big shark. ‘Man,’ I thought, ‘I better film this’,” he said.

“The dorsal fin was only half out of the water and the length from its dorsal to tailfin was at least 1.5m.”

The dangerous river sharks are seen leaping out of the water daily, local commercial fishermen report.

“Every day you will see them jumping out of the water chasing fish,” said a Ballina angler who did not wish to be named because of a recent spate of shark attacks in his town. “They have to make a living somehow as well.”

The fisherman, with 30 years’ experience, said the sharks were always found throughout the east coast waterways in large numbers.

“In summer they like getting right up into the shallow waters,” he said. “They’ve been seen chasing mullet all the way up on to river banks.”

Trevor Carter had the back of his row boat mauled by a bull shark in the Nerang River in January.

Others haven’t been so lucky. Beau Martin, 23, died swimming in Miami Lake in December 2002 and the following year, 84-year-old Bob Purcell died on his morning swim in Burleigh Lake.