Monster in the lake

Lake Macquarie News 14th Nov 2007

A ``MONSTER'' shark spotted off Point Wolstoncroft recently will see Alan Howard rethink his recreational fishing habits.

And his mate's children won't be splashing around the back of the boat cooling off in the lake for a while.

Mr Howard, of Gwandalan, said he spotted a three-and-a-half-metre-long shark while fishing from the back of a friend's cruiser one Thursday evening late last month.

``It was easily longer than the back of the boat . . . easily,'' he said.``I've never seen anything like it. It was a monster.''Mr Howard said he had seen plenty of sharks in the lake before, but none of this size.``He was (like) Jaws,'' he said.``My mate was just as shocked. He has a ladder from the back of the boat that kids swim off into the water he said he won't be letting them do that any more.''

Mr Howard said he was concerned for users of the nearby Point Wolstoncroft sport and recreation facility and had notified camp staff of the sighting.

Lake Macquarie Game Fishing Club president Neil Grieves said it would most likely have been a kind of whaler shark.He said sharks were attracted to large number of bait fish and warmer water generated by power stations in the south.``Sharks follow the warmer current into the lake,'' he said.

Mr Grieves said he'd never seen a shark that big in the lake and was ``fairly sceptical'' of the size.``I'm not saying it wasn't that big, only that people have a tendency to exaggerate the size of sharks,'' he said.``But if it was a 3m shark, that would make it somewhere around 200kg. That is a big whaler.''

A Department of Primary Industries spokesman said no studies had been done on the number of sharks in Lake Macquarie.