Sharks have been detected off Malua Bay Beach for the second day in a row. A white shark which had been tagged "pinged" a sensor at 6.30 on Tuesday morning.
The day before, on Monday, seven sharks were spotted very near shore on the bay. Despite that and the closure of the beach, some people kept going into the sea there.
"It was a little boat with two young blokes trying to catch a shark, and there was a gentleman who went swimming," Kate Hunt, president of the Batemans Bay Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC), said.
It was "frustrating when people ignore our advice," the experienced lifesaver said.
She felt that people who swam in dangerous water endangered volunteer lifesavers. "If they get into trouble, we are going to have to rescue them. We are just volunteers. We don't have authority to stop someone. All we can do is advise people."
That advice was ignored on Monday when what she called the "tinny" boat was seen in the water after the seven sharks had been spotted by a drone and the beach declared closed.
On Tuesday, Kate Hunt, advised people to keep watching two websites, Dorsal and SharkSmart, but added: "It's just being aware of the risks - but I won't be going in today."
The sharks on Monday were initially spotted by a surfer who put his drone up. He then alerted the SLSC which verified their presence in waist-deep water. People who saw the sharks thought they were a mixture of great whites and bull sharks.
On Tuesday, more were spotted only a few metres from the shore. "I witnessed two large sharks calmly cruising close to shore," photographer Trent Micallef posted on Facebook.
And again on Tuesday, a great white was detected when an electronic sensor was "pinged", the NSW government said. It had been tagged and released on October 7, 2024 at Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie.
Apart from the electronic "sighting" of the shark at 6.30 on Tuesday morning, another, different one was caught and tagged.
Along the South Coast of NSW, there is a system of buoys which detect tagged sharks, and a system of lines which catches them so they can then be tagged.
The baited lines about 500 metres offshore are attached to buoys which send a signal when a shark takes the bait. A crew puts to sea quickly, draws the live shark up and puts an electronic tag with a transmitter on its dorsal fin. The shark is then taken some kilometres out to sea and released.
The tagging is part of the NSW government's SMART program (Shark-Management-Alert-In-Real Time). "Once alerted, the team responds immediately (within 30 minutes) to tag and release the shark or other marine animal," the NSW Department of Primary Industries said.
Two weeks ago, the NSW government announced the expansion of its shark-spotting drones program. Surf Life Saving NSW, which runs the scheme, will monitor popular beaches where shark incidents had become more frequent.
The drone coverage would include Malua Bay Beach and Broulee.
Malua Bay Beach currently has drone surveillance at weekends but that would be expanded to a seven-day operation, weather permitting, because drones can't fly in winds or heavy rain.
The NSW government advised: "White sharks have a seasonal movement pattern along our coastline:
