Bull shark named as species in fatal Swan River attack

A fatal shark encounter in Australia’s Swan River earlier this year, which resulted in the death of 16-year-old Stella Berry was the first in those waters for 100 years, and the species of shark responsible has been confirmed as a bull shark.

ABC News in Australia said that evidence confirming a bull shark being involved in the young woman’s death was now being prepared for the coroner.

Bull sharks are renowned for being able to swim in salt or fresh water, so areas like Swan River are the perfect gateway for the shark species.

Since the attack at the start of February there have been increased sightings of bull sharks in the area, but that absolutely doesn’t mean there are more there than there were before, it just means  that the public are far more aware.

And whilst that awareness is sadly too late for Stella, it means far greater safety for others using the river who may have otherwise been unaware of what lurks beneath the surface.

Added to that, acoustic receivers are set to be deployed in those waters and it is hoped that they will help give real time updates as a warming system.

There is also a shark tagging set to begin in those waters, which although is a welcome mitigation against such future shark encounters, it is argued by some that this move comes too little too late and should have begun after a serious but non-fatal bull shark attack in the same waters back in 2021.

It is of course hard to know that if such a programme had been implemented whether that fatal attack would still have happened or not, but it will be hard to remove that ‘what if?’ from the thoughts Stella’s family and friends.

Words by Dean Newman

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