Swimmers at the south coast might want to take extra care in the ocean after more than a dozen sharks have been spotted on the NSW south coast in the past 48 hours.
The Illawarra Mercury has reported that sharks have been sighted at Narrawalle Beach, Dolphin Point, Bendalong Beach, Wairo Beach, Hyams Beach and North Tabourie, with swimmers being evacuated from the water after each sighting.
A NSW Department of Primary Industries helicopter took an aerial photograph of a 2.5 metre whaler shark at Hyams Beach at 12.14pm on Thursday.
It was the second sighting of whaler sharks at the Jervis Bay beach after Twitter account NSWSharkSmart tweeted a picture of 17 whaler sharks in shallow water off Hyams Beach at 9.30am.
@cjoye @nswdpi Here is the photo of the 17 whaler sharks in shallow water off Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay. Swimmers evacuated. Please be #Shark Smart pic.twitter.com/R9SjgTddXk
— SharkSmart (@NSWSharkSmart) December 28, 2016
The sharks are between 1.8 to 2.5 metres in length.
There are no lifeguards posted at Hyams Beach, where police evacuated swimmers after receiving the shark alert from Surf Life Saving NSW.
The beach was closed for two days starting on New Year's Eve last year after large schools of sharks swam perilously close to holidaymakers.