A BABY shark was safely returned to the ocean after concerned passersby saved it from where it had become trapped in a rock pool.
Lisa Frain was walking near Moonee Beach at Catherine Hill Bay when she spotted the little shark - less than a metre long - swimming in the shallow water about midday on Sunday.
Assuming it had washed into the rock pool on the high tide, she moved on, but noticed it had taken a turn for the worse when she returned half-an-hour later.
"We walked to the end and saw the little shark on his back with his little nose wedged in the crevice in the rocks," Ms Frain told the Newcastle Herald.
She urgently sprang into action.
"I just thought, 'oh my god, the poor little thing, what are we going to do'," she said.
"I was watching the little guy ... and I thought, 'it's dying'."
Ms Frain posted an urgent call for help on social media, and a nearby fisherman and another young man joined the rescue effort.
Ms Frain said the young man bravely entered the rock pool in a desperate attempt to save it.
"We are two shark lovers, we were not letting him die," Ms Frain said.
"He delicately got the little shark out, he did it really slowly and carefully so he didn't hurt its nose."
Ms Frain said the fisherman grabbed the baby shark once it was freed and quickly took it to the water's edge to be released.
It was seen diving deep then swimming off.
Ms Frain said the juvenile was "really cute" and definitely the closest she'd been to a shark.
She described the young man's actions as heroic.
Ms Frain's initial social media post in a Lake Macquarie community group gained traction and received hundreds of likes and dozens of comments.
She said while there was some contention about what type of shark it was - from a baby reef to a bronze whaler - she was amazed at the community's outpouring of support.
