Dunsborough on high alert after shark spotting

Dunsborough residents have been spooked by a six-metre shark reported about 150 metres offshore from Bayview Crescent on Tuesday.

A group of six people were on two tin boats when they spotted the dark shape of a shark in the water.

“We were going for a knee board just past the first sandbank when we saw a fin,” teenager Jed Hopkins said.

“We thought it was a dolphin or a baby whale, but then we realised it was a shark when it got closer.

“It was pretty scary because we had heard of the attack in Bunker Bay recently.”

Ben Lupton, 12, said the shark looked like it was “chilling” in the bay, circling their boats and on one occasion swam underneath a boat.

The group followed and filmed the shark towards fish rock and past the Old Dunsborough boat ramp, before they lost sight of it.

Ben said the group was unable to identify the species of shark, but believed it was not a great white.

Bayview Crescent resident Liz Pearson, whose partner and son Gordon and Dylan Vernon were also in the boats, said the experience was nerve-wracking as the sighting was near a popular family beach.

“The shark was spotted not far from the point where they have swimming lessons in the bay, and many kids use this bay to go skurfing,” she said.

“I’ve lived here for 40 years and I’ve never heard of a shark so close to the beach.”

This sighting came only hours after beaches in Cowaramup Bay were closed after a large shark was reported within 20 metres of the beach by a surfer.

Department of Fisheries senior shark research scientist Rory McAuley believed the recent fatal attack at Bunker Bay could explain the large number of shark sightings.

“This greater consciousness of shark attack risks probably encourages a higher level of shark sighting reporting by the public and media than at other times,” he said.

He said shark numbers could also be impacted by the subsiding of warmer-than-usual water conditions allowing white sharks to resume normal movements, and fish species starting to school in coastal waters likely to attract travelling sharks.

See the Busselton Dunsborough Times Facebook page for a link to the group’s film footage.

Shark sightings should be reported to the Water Police on 9442 8600.