A shark expert has sounded the alarm about an shocking rise in attacks along the Queensland coast.
His concerns come after a 29-year-old man was mauled near Moreton Island last weekend – just weeks after 17-year-old Charlize Zmuda was fatally attacked off Bribie Island.
Meanwhile, locals fear the situation could be escalating after a massive whale carcass was buried in the area – already notorious among locals as ‘Shark Alley’.
The 15 tonne humpback whale, found on Bribie Island’s Woorim Beach in October last year, had already been partially devoured by sharks before authorities buried it.
Its grave is located just metres from where Ms Zmuda was killed on February 3rd and a mere 11 nautical miles from where the 29-year-old man was attacked last weekend near the Wrecks Walking Track.
One Australian shark expert, speaking anonymously due to fear of blowback, criticised the decision to bury the carcass, warning that the decomposing remains could act as a long-term attraction for sharks.
‘I can’t believe that they even considered it, whale carcasses are so oily and what happens is that (the oil) leaks out from the sand and into the waterways for years,’ the expert told Daily Mail Australia.
‘You can’t go that deep to bury them and a shark can easily sniff it out, especially in that warm tropical water – there is going to be a constant trail leaking out.’
Teenager Charlize Zmuda was killed after being attacked by a shark off Bribie Island
The dead whale was washed up and then buried in October 2024
The expert also attributes the rise in attacks to Queensland’s booming bull shark population caused by size limits on catches introduced in July 2021.
In Queensland, each person is allowed to catch and keep only one shark, provided it does not exceed 1.5metres.
‘The Queensland government put a size limit on sharks that you could catch, and since then, numbers have gone through the roof,’ he said.
‘If you read any of the fishing pages, you will see fisherman can’t even land their catch because bull sharks are just swimming with the boats and taking the fish.
‘But it’s become a political thing around commercial fishing. You can’t trust studies because there is an agenda attached and the Greens want to save (the sharks).’
He said that that while sharks don’t actively hunt humans for food, a single bite can cause fatal blood loss.
‘They can easily bite a human in half and they are prolific at the moment.’
The man who was attacked at the weekend is recovering in a Brisbane hospital after airlifted from Moreton Island.
He was mauled in the waters off the bay side of Moreton Island near the Wrecks Walking Track shortly after 3pm on Saturday.
The area between the two attack locations is already dubbed ‘Shark Alley’ by locals
A rise in bull sharks in the area have also been blamed for the rise in attacks
Paramedics treated him at the scene for abdominal and leg injuries before a rescue helicopter flew him to the Princess Alexandra hospital in a stable condition, where he remained on Sunday morning.
The incident marks the fourth shark attack in Queensland in recent months.
On December 28 last year, 40-year-old Luke Walford was killed by a shark near Humpy Island, weeks after a man was hospitalised after a shark attack on nearby Curtis Island. Both of those men were spearfishing when they were bitten.
Now worried locals have vowed to boycott the beaches, fearing for their own safety.
Taking to a local community Facebook page, a recent post about the spate of attacks attracted hundreds of comments.
‘As I said a couple of months ago, they (attacks) will become more and more common. Government have dropped the ball on shark numbers,’ a person said.
‘More to come unfortunately. The problem is scientists are misleading people into a sense of false security that there is not many left and nearly endangered in Australia. They should be sacked immediately for spreading lies,’ added another.
‘It’s that dead whale that they buried in the sand at Woorim Beach late last year. That dead carcass has been filtering through the sand attracting the sharks,’ commented a third.
