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The sea has consistently been a major aspect of Glen Butler's life.

Over 50 years a wave rider for 50 years and, throughout those years, he says he rarely worried about ocean hunters.

"You recognize you're stepping into their territory, so you're careful," the experienced waterman remarked.

Yet Mr Butler's assurance on the water was shaken in recent weeks.

He traveled for a ocean outing with his friends one early weekend at Long Reef in the beach communities north of Sydney. A few minutes after Mr Butler left of the surf, companion surfer the experienced surfer was fatally attacked by a great white shark.

"It has disturbed us quite," Mr Butler acknowledges. Mercury and his identical sibling his brother were well-known in the beach community, he notes: "You would regularly say hello."

The nation Deadliest Location for Shark Incidents

Australia is location to many of the globally renowned beaches. More than 80% of the residents dwells on the coastal region, so an sunrise dip or surf is common for numerous of individuals each day.

Yet there are individuals who think that daily ritual is growing progressively dangerous.

A Sydney resident is one of them.

The senior Sydneysider recalls gawking at enormous great white sharks hauled in by fishing crews as a kid, back in the time the currently protected marine life could still be permitted to be caught.

Seeing these deceased animals hung by their rear fins provoked a "gallows-like" emotion, he describes, but not fear. Marine predators were beings of the deep ocean, he reasoned, and he rode waves in the more shallow bays.

However several years past, his offspring Anika was nipped by a shark species while swimming on the marine park. Although she was not fatally injured, it made him anxious about the marine life – something that increases with each splashy report about an incident.

"These events trigger me… I'm terrified," he admits.

While 'Merc' was only the second individual killed by a shark encounter in the city over the past half-century, it's small consolation to those who frequently use the city's beaches.

Each surfer contacted in the period after the surfer's death said they believe shark sightings near the coastline are becoming rising.

"Periodically we may have observed a unidentified shape, but it may have been a dolphin," explains the resident. "Presently, I see them all the time."

Some worry that shark counts are growing exponentially, after multiple species - encompassing the world's two deadliest shark species, great whites and striped sharks - were granted varying degrees of conservation in local marine areas.

Scarce research on population counts to definitively tell any direction – but experts contend an growth in sightings doesn't necessarily mean there are more sharks.

Environmental experts indicate that warming oceans are changing the swimming and hunting habits of marine predators. But researchers explain any growth in sightings is primarily because of more and more beachgoers entering the water, and they are amplified by online platforms.

The chance of being nipped by a marine predator in this country is still minute. You're several thousand times higher chance to suffer drowning. Indeed, however, that the country is a shark attack high-risk area.

Australia places only behind the America - a country with much larger the residents - for predator encounters, and it ranks first the globe for lethal encounters, according to the global database.

That database only tracks "unprovoked" events – excluding those likely stimulated by humans through actions such as marine harvesting – but a more comprehensive record of all reported shark interactions in the country is kept by wildlife organization.

Records demonstrate that shark attacks have generally been increasing over modern times. Already this period there have been four deadly incidents - all non-induced.

Meshes 'Comparable to a Tissue in a Pool'

The state had been preparing to experiment decreasing its deployment of predator meshes – its oldest predator prevention method – when the most recent fatal attack took place.

Shark nets have been used in the state since nearly a century and presently are typically installed on numerous coastal areas from September through to late summer. In addition to Queensland, it is the only state that continues to employ them.

It's impossible to fully surround complete coastal areas – sea states are very forceful and would simply sweep the meshes away.

Instead, the shark nets are around 492ft extending and sit a few metres under the ocean surface. While anchored to the marine bed at locations, they do not extend to the bottom. So sharks can go over, below and around them.

"It's comparable to dropping a tissue into the pool," Research center Professor a marine expert commented.

Local authorities states marine barriers are "not designed to establish a total barrier between bathers and marine animals" but instead aim to "intercept target sharks" during any {hunts