Shark puts beach in shutdown

THE north end of The Strand beach near the Rockpool was closed yesterday after a large shark sighting.

Regional lifeguard supervisor Russell Blanchard said the shark came close to the beach about 9am, about 50m from the shore.

“The potential for it to be a dangerous shark is high. It was fairly sizeable,” he said.

Mr Blanchard said Surf Life Saving Queensland guards monitored the beach and reopened it at 11am.

“A couple of hours with no sightings, we confirm the area’s clear and it’s fine to reopen,” he said.

Mr Blanchard said while the beach was not packed, there were a number of beachgoers in the area at the time of the sighting.

“It doesn’t happen that often for us around Townsville,” he said.

“Cleveland Bay has a population of tiger sharks, we do see them ( around Maggie Island) occasionally. It’s their environment. It’s very rare you’ll see big tigers close to the shore.”

James Cook University shark expert Professor Colin Simpfendorfer said with 24 common shark species in the Townsville region, it was difficult to say which type it would have been.

“Sharks are a common part of our marine ecosystem, including around Townsville, the fact that they’re in our ocean is no surprise,” he said.

“People going to the beach shouldn’t be surprised that from time to time they will see one.”

Prof Simpfendorfer said sharks were generally not visible to the public, tending to swim at the bottom of the ocean off Townsville’s coast.

“The risk for swimmers is very, very small. We have shark populations all across the Queensland coast,” he said.

Fisheries Queensland shark control program manager Jeff Krause said 59 sharks have been caught off Townsville this year.

Of those 32 were tiger sharks, eight were bull whaler sharks and six tawny sharks.

The Queensland Shark Control Program has 54 drumlines off Townsville.