They are only the kids of the sea but they hold the reputation as the world’s most notorious shark.

Bull sharks are extremely territorial predators that enjoy using canals as their own personal playground.

Instead of swings and play equipment these fascinating creatures cruise from the nursing ground of the Nerang River to canals in Surfers Paradise, Sea World and Broadbeach.

These young sharks tend to favor areas which are deeper, darker and populated by bait fish.
While small, these sharks can chow down between one and 10 per cent of their body weight weekly with favorites including fish, other sharks, rays, dolphins, turtles, birds and crustaceans.

However there have been some incidences where the splashing of a swimmer has been mistaken for a struggling fish and as a result the hungry bull shark zooms in for a feed.

These concerns are addressed in Sea world’s new exhibit Shark Attack - Bull Sharks in our backyard.

Sea World Director of Marine Sciences Trevor Long says the majority of attacks occur during low light at night or early morning.
“Sharks have always been a creature of mystery and fear and Shark Attack will explore the myths surrounding the sharks while educating people on how to avoid having interactions with these remarkable animals,” he says.

Trevor adds that he would like to see some empathy towards bull sharks with these creatures suffering at the hands of humans.

“What follows after a shark incident is that people want to eradicate them, we get people catching them on line and clubbing the sharks with timbers,” he says.

“This tells me is there is not enough value placed on these animals, we need to understand their role and why we need them in our water system.”

Indeed before you start demonising these fascinating creatures it is important to note they play an important part in keeping the waterways healthy.

Previous studies show that if you were to remove bull sharks from the waterways the quality of the marine ecosystem would go into decline.

Additionally there is common misconception that thousands of bull sharks are invading the canal system when in reality populations of large marine predators are in dangerous decline.

It took months to acquire nine bull sharks for the Shark Attack exhibit as the canal system was not home to huge numbers of these amazing creatures.

Griffith University shark expert Jonathan Werry who has been monitoring the bull sharks for the last four years and worked closely with Seaworld to develop this new attraction says that bull sharks make specific excursions into the canals looking for food.

“They move from one side of the canal system to another so they know exactly where they are going,”

“They move on a two-three week cycle, what people are seeing is the same sharks over and over again.”

When these kids grow up they head out to sea and start a family.

Studies indicate that these creatures live for about 14 years and prefer to breed in river mouths.

Surprisingly the female bull shark is larger than the males winning the battle of the sexes at about 2.9 metres long and weighing about 200 kg.

The males tend to be about 2.1 metres long and only weigh around 90 kg.

On average the female tends to give birth to litters of one to 13 pups after carrying eggs in her womb for one year.

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