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The ocean has traditionally been a central component of Glen Butler's daily routine.

He's been a surfer for five decades and, throughout those years, he notes he rarely concerned himself about marine predators.

"You recognize you're entering into their territory, so you're careful," the senior surfer remarked.

However Mr Butler's confidence while surfing was broken in recent weeks.

He'd gone for a wave session with his surfing buddies one early weekend at Long Reef in the beach communities north of Sydney. Not long after the surfer left of the surf, companion surfer the local waterman was killed by a great white shark.

"It has rattled us somewhat," the surfer admits. The surfer and his identical sibling his brother were familiar in the local community, he notes: "Typically you'd say greetings."

Australia Highest Risk Location for Marine Encounters

The continent is host to numerous the globally renowned beaches. Over 80% of the residents lives on the shoreline, so an sunrise dip or wave session is standard for numerous of individuals each day.

But there are individuals who feel that daily ritual is turning increasingly hazardous.

Mirek Craney is among them.

The 66-year-old Sydney resident recalls staring at huge large predators caught by fishing crews as a child, in the time the presently safeguarded marine life could still be legally hunted.

Observing these dead beasts hung by their tails caused a "macabre" sensation, he explains, but not terror. Sharks were animals of the marine depths, he reasoned, and he rode waves in the less deep inlets.

Yet several years past, his daughter his daughter was nipped by a pig eye shark while free-diving on the marine park. Though she lived through, it made Mr Craney worried about the animals – something that grows with each splashy report about an encounter.

"These events trigger me… I'm frightened," he confesses.

While 'The victim was only the second individual killed by a shark attack in the city over the past 60 years, it's small consolation to those who frequently visit the urban shorelines.

Every wave rider spoken to in the weeks after Psillakis' fatal encounter said they think shark appearances near the coastline are turning more frequent.

"We occasionally might have seen a dark shadow, but it could have been a dolphin," explains the local. "Now, I see them frequently."

Some concern that marine predator populations are increasing rapidly, after several types - featuring the planet's most lethal shark species, large predators and tiger sharks - were given multiple types of conservation in the nation's oceans.

There is minimal scientific study on shark numbers to definitively tell either way – but specialists contend an growth in observations doesn't automatically indicate there are increased populations.

Marine researchers indicate that warming oceans are changing the swimming and feeding behaviors of marine predators. But researchers explain any increase in sightings is largely because of more and more people going into the ocean, and they are enhanced by online platforms.

The likelihood of being nipped by a marine predator in this country is still very low. Individuals are several thousand times more probable to drown. Certainly, nevertheless, that the land is a shark attack danger zone.

The country ranks only behind the US - a nation with 13 times the residents - for marine incidents, and it ranks first the world for fatal attacks, based on the global database.

The tracking system only tracks "spontaneous" encounters – excluding those possibly stimulated by humans through activities such as underwater hunting – but a fuller collection of all recorded marine encounters in the nation is kept by Taronga Conservation Society.

The data indicates that marine incidents have broadly been growing over recent decades. Already this period there have been several fatal attacks - every one non-induced.

Barriers 'Like a Tissue in a Pool'

New South Wales had been planning to experiment scaling back its implementation of predator meshes – its longest-running shark safety approach – when the recent deadly incident happened.

Shark nets have been used in the region since nearly a century and these days are commonly installed on 51 beaches from late winter through to March. In addition to another region, it is the exclusive area that continues to employ them.

It's impossible to cordon off entire beaches – ocean conditions are too strong and would simply wash the meshes away.

Alternatively, the marine barriers are around 150m in length and rest a several feet under the water's surface. While secured to the marine bed at points, they fail to touch the base. So sharks can go above, under and beyond them.

"It resembles placing a paper into the pool," University of Sydney Researcher Chris Pepin-Neff explained.

The state government explains shark nets are "not created to create a total division between swimmers and sharks" but alternatively seek to "catch target sharks" during any {hunts