Explainer: A terrifying shark attack on a popular Sydney swimming beach has people asking, are shark attacks getting worse? And what's the reason behind them?
Shark attacks are still extremely rare in New Zealand, but we're just an ocean away from Australia, where a surge in fatalities and bites has raised fears and talk of culling.
Daryl McPhee is an associate professor at Bond University in Queensland who has done extensive research on unprovoked shark bites.
"A cluster of shark bites makes headlines for one simple reason: it frightens people," he notes.
But sharks aren't hunting us, and there are efforts to prevent attacks and better understand why these incidents happen. Here's what you need to know.
Leah Stewart, 35, was attacked at the popular swimming beach Coogee in Sydney.
Supplied / Stewart family via ABC
What's been happening with shark attacks?
There have been three deadly shark attacks in less than a month in Australia, as well as a woman swimming at a Sydney beach who was left fighting for her life in hospital after an attack last weekend.
"They do seem to be on the increase," Australian correspondent Nick Grimm told RNZ's Checkpoint this week.
Leah Stewart, 35, was attacked at the popular swimming beach Coogee in Sydney last weekend by what was believed to be a white shark, suffering critical injuries including the loss of an arm.
What shocked Australians about the incident is that it came in an unexpected area, and the victim was "doing everything right" to avoid attacks, Grimm said. She wasn't in a remote area, murky water or doing activities like spearfishing or surfing.
"She was swimming at one of Sydney's most popular beaches, not far from shore, and was attacked while inside the flagged area patrolled by lifesavers where swimmers are encouraged to enter the water and swim.
"All up, shark behavioural experts say she was incredibly unlucky."
The three earlier recent fatalities were all spearfishers in Western Australia and Queensland .
McPhee said the risk of bites to spearfishers is higher than for surfers and swimmers. Sharks can be attracted to dying fish and the blood and vibrations they make in the water.
In January, a 12-year-old boy died in hospital after a shark attack. At one point New South Wales saw four bite incidents in 48 hours .
Visitors walk along the shoreline as northern Sydney beaches remain closed following a suspected shark attack at Long Reef Beach on September 6, 2025.
SAEED KHAN / AFP
Why are people being attacked? Is it happening more often?
Australia is a particular hotspot for shark attacks - more than half of the world's fatal attacks occurred there in 2025, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack database.
Twenty-three shark bite incidents and five fatalities were recorded in 2025 in an Australian Broadcasting Company analysis of the Australian Shark Incident Database.
While shark attacks grab our attention, McPhee noted that they do typically have some kind of pattern.
"These incidents align with a well-understood set of environmental conditions that occur periodically and predictably."
Some people think shark attacks become more common because the animals have been unable to find food - but that's not true, McPhee said.
"The commonest misconception is that sharks bite people because they are starving due to overfishing. In fact, the exact opposite is true."
Commercial fishing of Australian salmon has gone down compared to historic levels, while other coastal food resources like seals and whales are protected, which has a knock-on effect for hungry sharks, McPhee said.
"So it is an increase in the abundance of coastal food resources rather than a decline which may be resulting in white sharks spending more time in coastal waters."
New Zealand shark expert Riley Elliott told RNZ earlier this year that sharks are often trying to hunt in a poor visual environment, driven by many human impacts such as urbanisation, sedimentation and agriculture that lead to muddy harbours.
"Sharks don't [hunt] people," Elliott said. "Where they make mistakes is when they've been drawn into a food source, they're hungry, the visibility's poor and then people go in the mix."
Kaelah Marlow from Hamilton died in an attack in the Bay of Plenty in 2021.
Supplied
Here in New Zealand, fatal shark attacks are less common but still happen.
Diver Jade Kahukore-Dixon was killed in an attack in the Chatham Islands in 2024 while 19-year-old Kaelah Marlow from Hamilton died in an attack in the Bay of Plenty in 2021 and Auckland filmmaker Adam Strange died in an attack off the West Auckland beach Muriwai in 2013.
Sometimes all it takes is one shark to cause alarm, such as a "rogue" great white suspected to be involved in a series of attacks in Dunedin between 1964 and 1971.
Are some people saying more sharks should be killed?
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has repeatedly
called for a cull of sharks after the attacks this year, say…
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