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The Daily Aus

Can we prevent shark attacks?

16 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 4.059

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Advanced Pet Food. Ready?

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4.44 - 5.582 Emma Gillespie

And good morning.

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5.702 - 6.464 Lily Madden

This is the Daily Oz.

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6.624 - 7.726 Emma Gillespie

This is the Daily Oz.

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8.147 - 9.249 Lily Madden

This is the Daily Oz.

10.071 - 11.394 Emma Gillespie

Oh, now it makes sense.

13.518 - 13.618

MUSIC

19.133 - 24.702 Emma Gillespie

Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz. It's Wednesday the 17th of June. I'm Emma Gillespie.

24.822 - 25.543 Elliot Lawry

I'm Elliot Laurie.

Chapter 2: What happened in the recent shark attack at Coogee Beach?

93.632 - 99.158

If you're watching on YouTube, press subscribe. Enjoy the episode and thank you for being a part of the TDA community.

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101.652 - 119.775 Elliot Lawry

Em, it was an unusually sunny, beautiful day in Sydney on the weekend and I was actually on my way out the door to go for a swim at Coogee Beach. Were you really? When my housemate came in and said I wouldn't go down there, there's been an attack. I live very close by to the beach and it was one of those very scary, surreal moments.

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120.376 - 129.331 Elliot Lawry

At that point in time, I was scrambling for information on what had happened and it was a little bit sparse, but we've learnt a bit more about the attack now. What do we know about what happened on Saturday?

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129.351 - 152.275 Emma Gillespie

Yeah, so we know that 35-year-old Sydney teacher and mother Leah Stewart was swimming between the flags of Coogee close to shore, pretty close to shore, when she was bitten by what experts believe to be a great white shark. She was brought to shore by swimmers and surf life-saving lifeguards who were on the scene. And she was airlifted to hospital in a life-threatening condition.

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152.335 - 170.269 Emma Gillespie

She has since undergone multiple surgeries. She is receiving extensive ongoing care, support and rehabilitation, in the words of her family, who released an update on Monday. And drone footage captured in the aftermath of that incident does show what appears to be, like I said, a great white shark swimming around

170.249 - 197.522 Elliot Lawry

near the scene of the incident it's really striking how close to shore that really scared me yeah yeah the drone footage was one of those things that I was replaying over and over because it was in a spot where so many people I know so often swim and this is one of those situations where it is a really popular beach it's not one of those rogue locations it's a very frequented beach in the city and this shark was so so close to the shore and as you mentioned there in an area around

197.857 - 211.616 Elliot Lawry

where the surf lifesavers had designated for people to swim. I feel like it's the latest in almost like a spate of attacks that we've been hearing about across the country. Is it that there's actually been a spike or are we just hearing about them more?

211.636 - 229.761 Emma Gillespie

There certainly has been a spike in the last couple of years. So since 2000, Australia has averaged between two and three fatal shark attacks per year. Mm-hmm. But in 2025, that increased to five. This year alone, there have already been four shark attack deaths.

230.242 - 254.254 Emma Gillespie

That includes a really highly publicized one you might recall from January when a 12-year-old boy very tragically was killed after being bitten by a bull shark. in Sydney Harbour. It was the first fatal shark attack in Sydney Harbour in 60 years. So very, very rare. But in New South Wales alone, beyond the fatalities, we've had four bites in 48 hours in January.

Chapter 3: How are shark attack statistics changing in Australia?

945.649 - 948.814 Emma Gillespie

Yes, and drones have come up a lot in the past week.

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948.794 - 949.395 Elliot Lawry

Heaps of chat.

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949.415 - 957.288 Emma Gillespie

Because, of course, Coogee Beach sits directly under Sydney Airport's flight path. Drones have been banned from operation in that airspace.

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957.589 - 962.477 Elliot Lawry

Which actually, just as a side note, there's always little kids legally flying drones on that beach.

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962.497 - 963.86 Emma Gillespie

But... Neighbourhood watch.

964.1 - 968.828 Elliot Lawry

Watch up Elliot in the Coogee Facebook page. Legally speaking, they're not allowed to be there.

968.808 - 983.367 Emma Gillespie

Legally speaking, yes. But in other beaches where they are used in New South Wales, they're so effective. They've spotted more than 1,000 sharks in the state in the past year. So Surf Lifesaving New South Wales operates its own drones and does those checks.

983.627 - 1000.99 Emma Gillespie

There's also a few different photographers and creators on Instagram and the likes who will do their own drone checks and share that footage, which is really, really valuable to the community. These drones are so helpful because they can detect sharks when they are close to shore and quickly trigger beach evacuation processes.

1001.331 - 1022.119 Emma Gillespie

So when Lifesaving recognises that there is a shark in a popular swimming area, they sound the alarm and they can implement a safe evacuation. The Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, actually supports the idea of expanding drone use. He has suggested AI-enabled drones become a permanent feature of shark surveillance right along the state's coastline.

Chapter 4: What factors are contributing to the rise in shark attacks?

1278.802 - 1302.362 Emma Gillespie

in that restricted area. But I did want to finish on a quote from Shark programs leader with DPI, Marcel Green, who described Saturday's attack at Coogee as unique and different. He noted the victim was doing everything right, as we've discussed, but quote, it was just one of those random events. We can never be protected 100% every day, all the time.

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1302.342 - 1313.697 Elliot Lawry

And I think now most of the country will be watching on what happens next year because this is some of the most densely populated beaches around Australia. And it'll be interesting to see whether those programs are rolled out nationally.

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1313.857 - 1314.338 Emma Gillespie

Absolutely.

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1314.358 - 1318.903 Elliot Lawry

Em, thank you so much for taking us through that. Thanks, Elliot. Do you have a tidbit? Because I do not.

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1319.805 - 1327.594 Emma Gillespie

I do have a tidbit. It's a sport tidbit, which is unusual for me.

1327.614 - 1329.057 Elliot Lawry

Okay. Is it World Cup?

1329.077 - 1346.446 Emma Gillespie

But the FIFA World Cup is going on at the moment. I don't know if you saw, but Cape Verde, a little country on an island off Africa, drew with Spain the world number two, nil all. Spain, world number two. Cape Verde, world number 67.

1346.847 - 1349.511 Elliot Lawry

And our comments section. Was 6'7".

1349.792 - 1368.989 Emma Gillespie

Yeah, which was very disappointing. But the reason that I wanted to talk to you about it for the tidbit is Cape Verde's goalkeeper. His name is Josima Diaz. Before the game, he had 50,000 Instagram followers. After the game, at the time of recording, 5 million.

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