Huge bull shark caught as part of tagging program on Sunshine Coast

Lurking beneath the jetties of some of the Sunshine Coast’s million-dollar homes is the region’s largest tagged bull shark, but even bigger sharks could be tagged in coming weeks.

A massive bull shark has been tagged as part of a first-of-its-kind research project seeking to un-muddy the waters and unlock the mysteries of the species on the Sunshine Coast.

University of the Sunshine Coast researchers are tagging bull sharks in Sunshine Coast waterways as part of a new three-year project to understand the local population.

To date, 21 sharks have been tagged as part of the program, the largest being a 2.3m mature male that was caught and tracked from Twin Waters.

Bull sharks are known to frequent waterways including the Noosa, Maroochydore, and Mooloolah Rivers, as well as the Pumicestone Passage.

There have been several reported sightings of large bull sharks on the Sunshine Coast this year, with Coolum angler Peter Hassett reeling in a bull shark measuring about 2.5m long near Noosa Sound in February, while Sunshine Beach at Noosa Heads was closed on June 15, when a 2m bull shark was spotted swimming close to the shoreline.

UniSC marine biologist and project lead Dr Bonnie Holmes with the bull shark caught at Twin Waters.

To gain a further understanding of bull shark activity on the Sunshine Coast, researchers will track the movements of sharks using acoustic tags and sensors.

Marine biologist and project lead Dr Bonnie Holmes said the research project will provide baseline data on bull sharks that swim through Sunshine Coast waterways.

A bull shark caught in the Maroochy River on the Sunshine Coast as part of a research project undertaken by the University of the Sunshine Coast.

“The project will try to reveal what bull sharks are doing, how many there are, how they feed, and how they use the river systems,” Dr Holmes said.

“We have some pretty good historical, anecdotal catches from commercial and recreational fishers, but we don’t really have any data at all.”

Dr Holmes said long-term data was needed to understand bull shark navigation and migration patterns.

“We know that big bull sharks do migrate past coastal waters every year from the tagging studies completed in Sydney Harbour, but we want to understand more about how they move locally,” she added.

“We don’t know much about the bull sharks that are born here, we think that they may use river systems interchangeably, but we also want to find out how far they travel up those rivers.

“We also don’t know how many females use our rivers to birth their pups and just like turtles they will return to the same rivers that they themselves were pupped in.”

Sharks tagged as part of the research program have unique notches on their fin.

In coming weeks, Dr Holmes hopes to tag some large pregnant sharks to uncover vital data about their breeding behaviour.

“We haven’t got onto a big girl yet, that’s what we’re aiming to do,” she said.

“We do know that at this time of year large females will come in to drop pups up in the rivers, those females can be anywhere from 3.2m to 3.5m or bigger in size.”

Dr Holmes believes that humans and bull sharks can safely share the region’s waterways.

“It’s about highlighting that bull sharks are there, they have always been there, and they will continue to be there,” she said.

“We hope to educate the public on their movements, behaviour, and have a better understanding about what’s going on in our waterways.”

Originally published as Huge bull shark caught as part of tagging program on Sunshine Coast