With calm seas, aqua water and the sun coming out to shine, the Easter long weekend saw crowds enjoying Mid North Coast beaches, however, swimmers and surfers at South West Rocks and Port Macquarie had their fun interrupted momentarily by sharks coming in a little too close to shore.
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On Saturday, March 30, at approximately 11am, Port Macquarie's Town Beach was closed for a short period of time when a surf life saving drone operator spotted a shark. The species was not identified but it was believed to be 2.5-metres in length.
An Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB), also known as a 'rubber ducky', helped move the shark back out to sea before the beach was reopened.
South West Rocks had three shark sightings on Monday, April 1, closing Horseshoe Bay and Main Beach.
At approximately 11am, a shark was spotted the RFS helicopter with life saver volunteer on board.
The species of shark again was undetermined and was thought to be 2.5 metres long.
"The shark was seen 400 metres along the beach between the Surf Club the two [ship] wrecks," President Mid North Coast Surf Life Saving Rod McDonagh said.
The shark was spotted 50 to 100-metres off shore.
The helicopter kept eyes on the shark, hovered over it until the South West Rocks surf club activated two IRBs and sounded the shark alarm with life guards on patrol ensuring everyone left the water.
"The beach was closed for about an hour," Mr McDonagh said.
"When the alarm went off there was a large amount of people swimming out around Stingray rock and the boulders, 50 or 60 people.
"They did the right thing and climbed up onto the rocks to wait it out.
"The rubber ducky actually helped ferry them back to shore."
A drone was launched by the operator on patrol who tracked the shark, and while the drone followed it , another shark came to join.
"Then there were two sharks at the same time," Mr McDonagh said. "They were hovering around the boulders and Horseshoe Bay area."
The IRBs and drone herded the sharks west out to sea, but the excitement wasn't over with the shark alarm sounding again at 3.30pm after the drone operator spotted a 2.5-metre shark.
There is no way of knowing whether this was the same shark or a different one.
"There was no signal from the shark buoy so that means they were un-tagged sharks," Mr McDonagh said.
With the long weekend bringing plenty of visitors to the area and the good conditions attracting them to the ocean, there were a lot of eyes on the water.
"The public were really good on that day," Mr McDonagh said. "Everyone was very understanding and all did the right thing."
