Large bull shark kills woman and injures man in attack at NSW beach | Sharks

A woman has died after a “large bull shark” attacked her and a man at Kylies beach on New South Wales’ mid-north coast.

Police said the couple, both in their 20s, were bitten while swimming together at the beach in Crowdy Bay on Thursday morning.

NSW police chief Inspector Timothy Bayly said witnesses assisted and emergency services were called to the beach at around 6.30am.

The woman died at the scene. NSW Ambulance Specialist Joshua Smyth said the man was seriously injured but a bystander applied a makeshift tourniquet to his leg before paramedics and the Westpac rescue helicopter arrived.

“[That] potentially saved his life,” Smyth said Thursday.

“The bravery of some of them is incredible. Putting yourself out there was very heroic and bought us time to get to that male patient.”

He was airlifted to John Hunter hospital in critical condition. He later recovered to a serious but stable condition.

Sharks rarely bite more than one person at a time, but they may do so while searching for prey to deter other animals from interfering, according to Rob Harcourt, a professor of marine ecology at Macquarie University.

“It’s pretty unusual, but not unheard of,” Harcourt said Thursday.

A Department for Primary Industries spokesman said “based on forensic analysis, DPIRD shark scientists determined that a large bull shark may have been involved.”

The department stepped in five “smart” drum lines at Kylies beach, where Bayly said this may have helped capture the shark involved.

There was no shark detection technology at Kylies beach before. Drum lines 40 km away and a listening station 20 km away did not detect any sharks on Thursday morning.

“Real-time shark management alert” drum lines used in NSW are a non-lethal tagging method that attracts sharks using baited hooks.

Australian Museum notes “The bull shark is one of several sharks that is potentially dangerous to humans and is likely responsible for the majority of shark attacks in and around Sydney Harbour.”

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Surf Life Saving NSW said Kylies and nearby beaches would be closed for at least 24 hours. Drones were monitoring the area for activity and dangers in the water.

The organization said the nearest surf club was located at Crowdy Head in the south and the remote part of the coastline was not controlled.

“This is a terrible tragedy and we offer our deepest condolences to the families of the man and woman involved,” Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce said in a statement on Thursday.

“For now, please stay out of the water at nearby beaches.”

According to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Kylies beach is only accessible by open roads and there is no potable water or electricity at the nearby campsite.

A report would be prepared for the coroner. The woman’s death comes less than three months after Mercury Psillakis was killed by a 3.5-metre great white shark at Sydney’s Long Reef beach in early September.

There have been five shark bite deaths in Australia this year.

In 2024, 13 unprovoked bites that did not result in death occurred; 10 fewer unprovoked bites compared to 2023, when four deaths occurred. There were seven unprovoked deadly attacks in 2020.

Deaths per capita have become less common over the past century because of faster emergency responses, tourniquet kits and first aid training at every surf lifesaving club, Harcourt said.

Professor Charlie Huveneers, director of the Flinders University Marine and Coastal Research Consortium, told Guardian Australia after Psillakis’ death that shark bites in general have become more common across Australia in the last two decades.

Huveneers said in September that coastal population growth, climate degradation, habitat depletion, the proliferation of water sports, weather anomalies, prey distribution and even better wetsuits that keep people in the water for longer periods of time and through cooler months are among 40 factors that likely contributed to the increase, depending on location.