Surf lifesaver describes moments following shark swarm near shore

A surf lifesaver has explained why more than a dozen sharks came way too close to swimmers at a popular beach.

A shiver of more than a dozen hammerhead sharks came terrifyingly close to swimmers at a Sydney beach because they were in pursuit of a bait ball, it has been revealed.

A shark alarm was sounded at 1pm on Tuesday on Palm Beach, with people urged to leave the water after drone footage spotted 15 sharks moving scarily close to swimmers.

Drone pilot and local surf lifesaver Remo Andoncello told Nine’s Today show a junior member of his team had spotted the sharks on the aerial footage and sounded the alarm.

More than a dozen hammerhead sharks were chasing after a bait ball when they came within metres of swimmers at Sydney’s Palm Beach on Tuesday.

Surf Life Saving NSW drone pilot Remo Andoncello said the hammerheads would not have posed a major danger to swimmers. Picture: Nine / Today

“I was a bit surprised; it’s not often we see that many in a group – obviously they were chasing a bait ball and having a bit of a feed, so it was very interesting,” Mr Andoncello said.

He said lifesavers were not overly worried once they had reviewed the footage.

“The sharks were about 200m off shore and they were basically chasing that (the bait ball),” he said.

“They’re not one of the dangerous (breeds).

“We do see them occasionally up here; we have a local hammerhead known as Bruce … he shows his face every few weeks.”

Beachgoers were “really well behaved” and left the water calmly and quickly when the alarm sounded, Mr Andoncello said.

“The alarm went off, flags came down; I was just in between the flags coming out and I watched everybody walking out very calmly … when the last swimmer got out, everyone started clapping and having a bit of a laugh,” he said.

The incident was unlikely to prompt the installation of more shark nets along Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Mr Andoncello said.

“We don’t have shark nets here at Palm Beach; I think with the technology we have available today, we can do a better job monitoring it from the air,” he said.

“We’ve got 50 locations across the NSW coast where we have drones available.”

Palm Beach was reopened to swimmers around an hour after the alert was sounded.

Lifesavers had patrolled the beach on jet skis to ensure no one had been injured in the incident, a Northern Beaches Council spokesperson said.