Manager of Australian city's beaches says he has never seen so many sharks so close to the coast in 35 YEARS - after eight swimmers mauled last year
A manager of some of Australia's most popular city beaches warns that he is seeing more sharks in the water than ever in his 35 years on the water.
John Snook, who looks after beaches like Scarborough and Trigg in Perth, said sightings of sharks close to the shoreline are increasingly common.
'It's highly unusual, something I've never seen before in my 30-odd years down here at the beach,' Mr Snook, the City of Stirling beach coordinator, told Nine News.
Mr Snook said there were more than 20 sharks sighted on Monday, and even more being spotted throughout the week.
A beach manager says shark sightings are becoming increasingly common in Western Australia. Pictured, a shark in the water off Perth's northern suburbs
'Just this morning we've seen a great white and a hammerhead,' he said.
'Some of the sightings we've even had this morning the sharks have been within 20m of the shoreline.
The Department of Fisheries estimates 1,500 adult great white sharks pass through Western Australian waters each year.
The department's Peter Godfrey said increased sightings could be put down to more people being in the water.
'It really is all about a larger number of pairs of eyes on the water seeing sharks,' he said.
'Also, we're tagging more sharks. We have a network of 34 shark monitoring receivers.'
The Department of Fisheries says increased shark sightings could be put down to more people being in the water
John Snook , the City of Stirling beach coordinator, says sharks have been spotted within 20 metres of the shoreline
Australia had its deadliest year for shark attacks in more than nine decades in 2020.
Eight Australians were killed by sharks last year - the most since 1929 - in stark contrast to 2019 when no one died.
Three of those fatal shark attacks occurred in Western Australia, two near Esperance and one on Cable Beach.
Western Australia is trialing drumlines in Gracetown, made up of two buoys and a satellite-linked GPS communications unit attached to a baited hook.
When a shark takes the bait an alert is generated, with vessels aiming to attend within 30 minutes to tag, relocate, and release the shark.