Multiple shark attacks in Australia reignite debate over controversial prevention measures

Eastern Australia is grappling with an unusual series of shark attacks that unfolded over just a few days, leaving maritime researchers stunned by what they describe as an “extraordinary” concentration of incidents.

Four shark attacks were recorded within a 48-hour period, three of them occurring along a 15-kilometre stretch of Australia’s east coast. A 12-year-old boy swimming in Sydney Harbour tragically died from critical injuries on January 18, according to Australian media reports.

“This is the closest series – in both proximity and in time – of shark bites that I’ve ever seen in my 20 years of research,” said Chris Pepin-Neff, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Sydney told the BBC.

The succession of attacks prompted widespread alarm, with dozens of beaches closed amid fears of further incidents. Public concern has also reignited calls for shark culls, a response that experts strongly dispute.

However, researchers say the sharks themselves are not to blame. Non-provoked shark attacks are typically triggered by environmental conditions, attractants in the water, or a combination of both.

The three recent incidents in Sydney, believed to have involved bull sharks, followed days of intense rainfall. The city’s official weather station recorded 127 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours, marking its wettest January day in 38 years.

That rainfall created “perfect conditions” for bull sharks, according to Rebecca Olive, a senior research fellow at RMIT University.

“Bull sharks thrive in warm, brackish water, which most other sharks flee,” she told the BBC. “They love river mouths and estuaries, so the freshwater that flooded off the land following the recent rain events was perfect for them.”

Olive and other experts note that runoff from heavy rainfall likely flushed sewage and nutrients into coastal waters, attracting bait fish and, in turn, sharks.

“There’s clearly an attractant in the water,” Pepin-Neff said, suggesting a “perfect storm” of low-salinity freshwater may have triggered a “biodiversity explosion.”

“The bait fish come to the surface, the bull sharks come to the surface, everybody’s in the near shore area – and now we have a problem.”

Official data show shark bite incidents in Australia have risen steadily over the past three decades, increasing from around eight to 10 annually in the 1990s to average figures in the mid-20s since the 2010s.

Experts caution that this does not mean sharks are becoming more aggressive. Instead, they point to improved data collection and a range of human factors, including population growth along coastlines, increased participation in water sports, and improved wetsuit technology that allows people to stay in the water longer.

“The number of total encounters is definitely much higher than it was, just because the population of people who go in the water and do all these things is really high,” Pepin-Neff explained.

If sharks appear more dangerous or numerous, Olive says this may be due to greater visibility through drone footage, improved reporting systems, and heightened media attention around shark encounters.

Do preventative measures work?

The recent attacks in Sydney have renewed calls for shark culls, typically involving nets or baited drumlines near popular beaches. Experts, however, reject the effectiveness of such measures.

“I can understand when there are calls for culls in response [to an attack]… but I’m strongly opposed to culling sharks in order that we can maintain an illusion of safety while surfing or swimming in the ocean,” Olive said.

Pepin-Neff echoed the sentiment, noting that scientific research does not support shark culls as a means of reducing attack risk.

“It just doesn’t work,” they said. “It makes politicians feel better, and it makes activists feel better, and it makes nobody in the water any safer.”

In shark encounters, Pepin-Neff added, the critical factor is not the sharks but the environmental attractants drawing them into coastal areas.

“It doesn’t matter if you kill all the sharks in Sydney Harbour – if there’s a shark up the coast and the attractant is still in the water, then the shark’s going to come in.”

Sydney is the capital of New South Wales, which, along with Queensland, remains the only Australian state where shark nets are still permitted as a mitigation strategy. Installed each summer from September to March across 51 beaches, the nets aim to reduce shark encounters near popular swimming and surfing areas.

In October 2025, state authorities were preparing to scale back net usage and trial alternative safety measures. However, a fatal shark attack at one of Sydney’s northern beaches at the time prompted the government to put those plans on hold.

Reducing risk

Both Olive and Pepin-Neff say minimizing risk begins with greater awareness of conditions that heighten the likelihood of shark encounters. Individuals are advised to avoid swimming or surfing after heavy rainfall, while local councils could expand the use of shark enclosures to provide safer swimming zones.

More broadly, they argue that Australians need to adopt a more realistic view of the ocean.

“In Australia we’ve got to treat the beach like the bush,” Pepin-Neff said. “Australians know how to navigate the wild. We just need to reinforce that the ocean is still the wild.”

By Nazrin Sadigova