Newcastle: Shark up close and personal

IT was about as up-close and personal as you probably want to get with a maturing great white shark in a couple of metres of water and not far from the Lake Macquarie shoreline.

And the awesome Sunday afternoon interaction between the three-metre shark and the Gibson family near Speers Point is becoming more common as the larger predators spend more time in a lake burgeoning with marine life.

Shark experts say the increasing reports of larger predators spending longer in Lake Macquarie showed how healthy the ecosystem was.

“If an animal of that size is there of its choosing and is happy to stay there, well it says a lot about how good the lake is going,” shark expect Dr Daniel Bucher said.

“We do not know how good their navigational skills are in whether they are finding it as easy to get out as it is to get in. But it appears healthy and it is obviously getting enough food.

“They are potentially dangerous but the chances are very low.”

Brad Gibson took his family out on the lake on Sunday when they first saw the shark about 200 metres off Speers Point. What followed was a 45-minute interaction with the curious fish as they followed it, and it followed them.

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“We thought it had finally swam off when my little bloke started pointing and when we turned around there it was, just following us,” Mr Gibson said.

“It was just a sensational experience.

“Every time I was silly enough to splash the water he could come back around, he was a big fat, healthy thing.

“My boat is just under five metres long and it was at least three-quarters of my boat. It was just cruising around taking its time.

“It was fantastic to see it in its environment just doing what it does. And it shows how healthy the lake is.

“I think it’s great.”

Mr Gibson said he noticed a wound on the shark’s back near its dorsal fin, and suggested it may have been struck by a boat.

A shark about the same length was seen off Marmong Point last month with rope and a buoy tangled around its fins.

Dr Bucher said great whites began moving from fish on to bigger prey when they got to about four metres, although they may experiment as they matured.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE WHICH MAY OFFEND.