Great White Washes Ashore At Avoca

A 2.5m great white shark has washed ashore at Avoca on the Central Coast.

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“We’re coming to the back end of the humpback migration along the NSW coast, and there’s a lot of shark activity, so keep your wits about you,” reads Surfline’s caption.

According to the ABC:

More sharks travelling increase the chance of encounters.

“The whale migration peaks in July and September and at these times there will be large sharks trailing them. There’s also quite a lot of bait fish moving out there which the smaller sharks follow. On top of that every year there are more and more surfers getting in the water”, says Greg Hackfath, a senior lifeguard at Coffs Harbour SLSC.

This year the NSW Government tripled its shark mitigation funding by committing $21.4 million in 2021/22 to a rollout of technologies and programs aimed to protect beachgoers.

The new shark program is  the largest and most comprehensive in the world and will involve scaling up Surf Life Saving NSW’s drone surveillance program to provide more beach coverage in more Local Government Area’s (LGA’s). The program involves:

• Increasing coastal surveillance using VR4G listening stations to ensure at least one in every LGA;
• Expanding the rollout of SMART drumlines technology and AI shark-spotting drones;
• Continuation of beach meshing; and
• Boosting shark tagging, research and community education programs.

The expansion of the program follows the recent passing of Tim Thompson, who died on the sand at Shelley Beach earlier this month. The rollout will target and expand on areas all along the NSW coast including; Tweed, Byron, Lennox, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Central Coast, Sydney, Wollongong, and the South Coast.