A 12-year-old boy is having the “fight of his life” after he was attacked by a large shark in Sydney Harbor on Sunday afternoon, with police warning people should not enter the water at nearby swimming spots.
In a separate incident on Monday, an 11-year-old boy was attacked by a shark in Dee Why, north of the city. The shark left multiple bite marks on his board, but the boy was not injured.
New South Wales Police said the boy who was attacked on Sunday was jumping from a popular rock ledge near Nielsen Park in eastern Sydney at about 4.20pm with friends when the incident, which is believed to involve a shark, occurred.
The boy’s friends, all of the same age, rushed to help him, and at least one of them jumped into the water to pull him to safety.
Superintendent Joe McNulty, Commander of NSW Police Marine Area Command, praised the Friends for their quick response.
“The actions of his teammates who got into the water and pulled him out were nothing short of brave,” McNulty said.
“All I can say is that the actions between the police… and the team performing CPR at the time, were extraordinary. It was a textbook recovery to give this boy a fighting chance for his life. He is in the fight of his life now, and the actions of the emergency services yesterday gave him that opportunity.”
A police speedboat responded within minutes and an officer applied double tourniquets to the boy’s legs to stop the bleeding. Officers were performing CPR while the boy was taken by boat to nearby Rose Bay, where ambulance crews were waiting to take him to hospital.
As of Monday afternoon, he was still in critical condition with injuries to his legs.
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Police Inspector Giles Buchanan, of the NSW Ambulance Service, said the tourniquet used by officers shortly after the attack was “certainly a life-saving intervention”. He described the initial response to the attack as a “resuscitation case,” noting that the boy was unconscious when emergency officials first arrived.
The boy had to be intubated to help with breathing.
“I think it was ongoing the whole time,” Buchanan added. “It still is.”
The Department of Primary Industries has not yet confirmed the type of shark believed to be involved, but police officials said it was a “large” animal.
McNulty noted that Sydney Harbor was brackish, meaning it contains a mixture of salt water and fresh water, and after a weekend of heavy rain, which can worsen visibility, officials believe the water quality, combined with the spray of people jumping into the water from rocks, “may have created the perfect storm environment for a shark attack.”
“Right now, we’ve seen a lot of fresh water in the harbor, which is brackish water so you can’t see the bottom,” he said. “So I advise you not to swim there now. This is not a good time for swimming.”
NSW SharkSmart confirmed that beaches near Nielsen Park, including Shark Bay Beach and Camp Cove Beach, remained closed following the incident.
It also confirmed a shark sighting in the area later Monday afternoon, around 1.40pm, prompting evacuations from the water. The beach was closed.
Sharks “follow those fish”
Bull sharks are well adapted to feeding in turbid waters, said Darryl Macfie, an associate professor and shark expert at Bond University.
“They can find things to eat very well in those conditions,” he said.
“Rainfall moves fish around areas like Sydney Harbour, and sharks will follow those fish.”
Although shark bites in the harbor are rare — there have only been four in the past 50 years, including a woman who was seriously injured after a shark bit off her leg in Elizabeth Bay — experts advise swimmers to avoid murky water as well as areas with large numbers of small fish, he said.
Bull sharks were opportunistic hunters, and cases of human bites could be animals seeing if they can eat what’s in front of them, McVeigh said.
SLS advises beaches near Nielsens Park-Shark Bay Beach, in Sydney Harbour, to remain closed following yesterday’s shark incident. Please be #smartshark.
– Shark Smart (@NSWSharkSmart) January 18, 2026