A shark has been spotted within a netted swimming enclosure at a Far North Queensland beach in what lifesavers have described as an "extremely unusual" occurrence.
The enclosure is designed to protect swimmers from jellyfish, but yesterday the presence of a much larger visitor forced the closure of Palm Cove beach to swimmers yesterday.
Cairns Surf Life Saving Club lifeguard Bob McPhail said a member of the public initially noticed the shark's fin while swimming in the net.
"We proceeded to watch the fin go up and down inside the net there for about an hour or so," he said.
"It was quite an exciting Thursday afternoon for Palm Cove."
Visiting from Brisbane, tourist Ron Rothwell captured images of the fin after leaving the water.
"We got out to about chest deep on our way out a little bit further and Tony the lifeguard … gave us a big, 'Oi!' We turned around and he said, 'You might want to get out'," Mr Rothwell said.
"[We] said, 'Why is that?' [and] he said, 'There's a big fish in the water'. I instantly knew what he meant."
Mr Rothwell said judging by the size of the fin, it must have been "a decent-sized fish".
"[The fin was] as high as the whites around so it was at least a foot high," he said.
Mr McPhail said it was "extremely unusual" to see sharks in the swimmer nets.
"Certainly it was there, but once the nets were pulled in, it would appear that the shark was able to get away under the net as it was being dragged," he said.
"It's a lot of white caps, it's quite rough, so the shark … it may have come over the boom netting with a wave or something."
He said the net has been inspected and found to have no holes so has since been put back.
The beach has since reopened.
