Experts issue urgent warning after series of shark attacks: 'Life-changing injuries'

Officials in Sydney, Australia, are warning people to avoid swimming for at least 72 hours after heavy rainfall, following four shark attacks that occurred within 48 hours.

What happened?

A shark attack left a 12-year-old boy in critical condition with bites on both his legs. There were three more shark attacks in the two days after the boy's attack. One shark bit a surfer and left them with minor injuries, a different shark attack left a man with "life-changing injuries," and another surfer barely escaped injury when a shark chomped part of their surfboard. 

According to ABC News, one shark expert blamed the attacks on the heavy rainfall that occurred before the boy's attack, where Sydney recorded 127 millimeters (5 inches) of rain in 24 hours. 

Chris Pepin-Neff, a University of Sydney associate professor of public policy, explained: "After 20 millimetres of rain, the level of faecal matter and raw sewage that are in the harbour attracts bait fish and brings sharks toward the bait fish."

Why are these shark attacks concerning?

Shark attacks tend to be rare. The International Shark Attack File recorded only 71 shark attacks worldwide in 2024, so four in 48 hours is concerning. 

Bull sharks, such as the one suspected to have bitten the 12-year-old boy, are among the most likely to attack, since they hang out in shallow coastal waters that are more heavily populated with swimmers and surfers.

Shark bites often lead to critical injury or even death, but as dangerous as these encounters are for humans, they can be equally deadly for the animals involved. 

If authorities knew for sure which shark attacked the 12-year-old boy, for example, they would likely hunt and euthanize it. This often occurs after wild animals attack, whether or not a human provoked them. 

Since bull sharks are considered near threatened due to their higher risk of exposure to pollution and habitat degradation, euthanization exacerbates their population decline. 

However, shark attacks aren't really the fault of the animal. Rising sea temperatures and pollution both contribute to the loss of food sources and natural habitats for these animals, leading them to migrate to new waters that are often closer to human populations. Coupled with a booming tourism industry that attracts more people to beaches, the risk of human-wildlife encounters increases significantly, leading to more shark attacks.

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What are Australian officials doing about these shark attacks?

Authorities shut down the beaches for the next 48 hours. The area already has shark nets in place, which seem to be working, as New South Wales Premier Chris Minns spoke in favor of them.

"What I can say is we're not going to remove the nets, as tragic as these attacks have been on Sydneysiders, to the best of my understanding, none has been within the netted areas of major Sydney beaches," he told Nine Radio, per the ABC report.

However, a representative for the Envoy Foundation told The Cool Down that this was "misinformation that shark nets seem to be working" and said many bites have happened at beaches with shark nets installed at at least one part of the beach. The exact statistics appear to be murky since most beaches have a variety of applications of such netting, including areas with no netting at all or netting low enough for sharks to swim over at high tide, but figures from Pepin-Neff suggest over 60% of shark bites have happened in NSW at beaches that do have at least some form of shark net applied.

Additionally, many experts stated that the city of Sydney has an obligation to alert the public about the dangers of swimming after big storms. As Pepin-Neff stated: "They need to put up public notices that tell people not to swim for 72 hours."

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include more information and commentary about the efficacy of netting to prevent shark attacks.

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