A great white shark attacked and seriously injured Leah Stewart at Coogee Beach in Sydney. The incident prompted authorities to close beaches across the eastern suburbs and brought back an old argument about the best way to keep swimmers safe from sharks.

NSW Police confirmed it was a great white and said Stewart's injuries were serious. Randwick City Council closed beaches in the eastern suburbs right away. Coogee was later reopened, but with extra patrols and drone surveillance watching the water.

Should Authorities Cull Sharks?

Former prime minister Tony Abbott called for culling — killing large sharks near the shore — as a way to stop future attacks. He's made this argument after other incidents in the past.

But marine scientists disagreed. The New Daily reported that experts warned there is little proof that killing sharks actually makes beaches safer. This isn't a new argument. Western Australia tried a culling programme between 2014 and 2017. It didn't work well enough to justify itself statistically, so the programme was eventually stopped after scientists and legal experts challenged it. Removing large sharks also harms reef ecosystems along the NSW coast.

The deeper issue is that great white sharks are protected under Australian federal law and migrate across vast ocean ranges. Culling would need approval from both state and federal government to change those protections — a threshold that NSW hasn't met before.

The Drone Alternative

The immediate response at Coogee relied on a different tool: drones. NSW regulators are now reviewing the rules that govern how drones can fly over beaches, the Straits Times reported. Right now, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority restricts where drones can go in crowded coastal areas. Any change to those rules would need to balance real-time monitoring against privacy concerns and airspace safety.

Reuters noted that experts see drones as the evidence-based alternative to culling. A drone can spot a shark and alert lifeguards in real time, giving them a chance to clear swimmers from the water before danger strikes. This approach doesn't require changing species protections or trying to reduce shark populations across their entire migration route.

What Happens Next

The Coogee attack will likely intensify this policy debate as NSW heads into summer. A serious injury, a well-known location, and a politically vocal advocate for culling create an environment where lawmakers might feel pressure to act quickly. Whether the decisions that follow rest on solid evidence or political momentum is the question officials will need to answer.