Sharks in Sydney Harbour: the sobering reality

By Deborah Snow
Updated December 22 2014 - 12:18pm, first published 11:43am
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A great white shark near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie. Photo: Rod Collins
A swimmer in Sydney Harbour passes over a shark. Photo: Sydney Institute of Marine Science
A swimmer in Sydney Harbour passes over a shark. Photo: Sydney Institute of Marine Science

"Here?" It Is 7.30 on a cool early summer's morning, and we're aboard Myer Berg's fishing boat, heading down Middle Harbour towards the Heads from a ramp near Roseville bridge. Dark olive-coloured water flows between banks of flowering gums, narrowing to less than 150 metres across in places, perhaps the width of 2½ Olympic swimming pools.