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Handwritten sign on an Australian beach warning swimmers - Source: ONE News -
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It took two savage maulings in two days and Sydney was gripped by shark fever.
The harbour city is proud of its beaches and proximity to nature, but the relationship was tested after a white pointer bit a surfer at Bondi Beach a day after a navy diver was mauled by a bull shark in the harbour.
While some experts warn of a possible increase in great white shark numbers, government scientists are quick to play down the "hysteria" following the attacks a fortnight ago.
Navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder was lucky to survive after being mauled by a 2.7-metre bull shark off Garden Island on February 11, causing him to lose a hand and leg.
Just a day later, 33-year-old surfer Glenn Orgias was attacked by a 2.5m great white that shook him and nearly severed his left hand.
The gruesome injuries have shocked Sydneysiders and sent authorities into a spin as everyone from military chiefs to tourism operators attempt to find a solution to keeping the deepwater predators away from people.
It comes as experts revealed almost three quarters of all fatal shark attacks recorded in Australia over the past decade were due to great white sharks, the largest species in Australian waters.
Some scientists point to a possible increase in numbers of great whites while others say there is no evidence of population growth despite the slow-reproducing species being protected since 1994.
"At some stage probably a large number of white sharks that we see in South Australia swim past Sydney. That's just what they do. Sometimes they swim out offshore. Sometimes they swim in a bit closer, but they pass by," CSIRO shark expert Dr Barry Bruce told AAP.
Bruce said the most deadly species of sharks found in Australia were bull sharks, tiger sharks and white sharks, also known as great whites or white pointers.
White sharks were responsible for 11 of the 15 shark fatalities in Australia in the past decade, NSW government scientists say.
Bruce said white sharks travelled large distances and did not live in one spot.
"In fact, most of the sharks that visit Sydney, particularly the potentially dangerous ones, do not live in Sydney. They move thousands of kilometres and they just pass Sydney," he said.
"On average the number of shark attacks hasn't changed, but people don't find comfort in those kind of statistics."
White sharks are found in Australia's southern waters and the CSIRO has tagged and monitored their movements along the east coast as far north as Rockhampton and as far north as Exmouth on the west coast.
Bruce said great whites visited the Port Stephens area near Newcastle in spring and early summer.
Statistics gathered on captures in shark nets at NSW and Queensland beaches did not show there had been any increase in their numbers, he said.
Only the great white shark is protected in Australian waters, while bull and tiger sharks remain unprotected.
Sydney has been relatively sheltered from the panic and fear which took hold of communities after shark attack fatalities in South Australia and Western Australia over the past decade.
The last death at Bondi Beach was in 1929 and just nine people have been injured by sharks in Australia's largest city in the past decade.
This compares with 11 white pointer fatalities in SA and WA in the past 10 years.
Perth beaches were deserted all summer after a massive white pointer ripped a leg off veteran swimmer Ken Crew, 49, killing him at North Cottesloe in 2000.
In the same year two surfers were killed in two separate white shark attacks near Cactus and Black Rock in SA.
In 2004, 29-year-old surfer Brad Smith was fatally mauled by a white shark at a remote surf break near Gracetown, in WA's southwest, and in March 2005, 26-year-old Geoffrey Brazier was killed while snorkelling off the Abrolhos Islands, west of Geraldton.
As Glen Orgias lays in Sydney's St Vincents Hospital after undergoing two marathon operations to reattach his severed left hand, the Bondi surfer counts himself lucky to be added to the survivors' list of white shark attack victims.
"I didn't see the shark. It let me go after three shakes," Orgias said in a statement on Tuesday.
"By some miracle I made it to the shore."
Orgias has now regained some feeling in his fingers.
Surgeons at the same hospital say 31-year-old navy diver Paul de Gelder is also lucky to be alive following "mechanical saw-like" injuries from a bull shark attack.
But while some beachgoers avoided Bondi and Sydney's other eastern beaches in droves on the weekend, Australia's most famous beach is still full of swimmers and surfers, even at times when authorities warn people to stay away.
"I don't really think about sharks while I'm out there," 20-year-old James Davidson told AAP after emerging from the Bondi surf at dusk on Wednesday.
Bondi businesses are beginning to count the cost of the recent publicity with the local chamber of commerce and surf-related businesses saying it will hurt tourism.
NSW Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald has refused to lift a ban on shark fishing quotas in the state and said there was no evidence to suggest bull shark numbers around Sydney have increased.
He said white sharks over about 2.5m had changed their diet from being primarily fish-based to feeding on marine mammals such as seals and dolphins, which could account for attacks on humans.
"Note that in almost all cases, great whites tend to release the person after biting - probably as they don't recognise the taste," Macdonald said.
NSW Fisheries chief scientist Steve Keneally said warmer water temperatures in NSW in February had led to greater numbers of baitfish which attracted sharks.
"The (shark) numbers haven't gone up, but there's some small evidence to suggest that white pointer sharks are starting to increase after protection internationally of them about 10 or 12 years ago."
