The calm waters of the Tuncurry Rock Pool attracted plenty of attention but no swimmers this morning, June 1, after a great white shark was spotted cruising in the popular swimming area.
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Great Lakes Advocate senior journalist, Jeanene Duncan, arrived at the pool at 8am for her morning swim and said the creature had attracted quite a crowd.
"People were quite excited," she said.
Ms Duncan said most people agreed the shark was around five feet long but there was debate about whether it was a juvenile great white or a grey nurse shark.
She believed it was the former.
"To me it looked like a great white because it only had one dorsal fin," she said.
In an effort to help the shark swim out of the rock pool and back into the wider ocean, workers from MidCoast Council attended in a dinghy at around 8:30am and clipped up the net that surrounded the area.
A spokesperson for council said the shark swam out of the pool soon after.
They said the shark had most likely chased bait into the area and reminded the public that the pool was not enclosed by a shark net.
"It is a net to assist swimmers in the rock pool and to separate them from the navigation channel," the spokesperson said.
Regardless of the shark's reasons for being there, Ms Duncan said it was exciting to see it close up.
"This is the first time I've seen a shark in the wild and I've lived on the water for 20 years," she said.
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