Vision taken by construction workers near the old Fremantle traffic bridge shows a school of baby sharks in water below.
Vision taken by construction workers near the old Fremantle traffic bridge shows a school of baby sharks in water below.
By Hannah Murphy
Updated September 24, 2025 — 2.17pmfirst published at 11.44am
The City of Fremantle will be closing a number of beaches near the new traffic bridge after a school of bull sharks were filmed in the area earlier this week.
Vision taken by construction workers near the old Fremantle traffic bridge shows a school of baby sharks in water below.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development confirmed the sharks in the vision were likely to be bull sharks.
The SharkSmart website has tracked the school since Monday, with two sightings recorded less than 24 hours apart at the same location.
The public reports estimate the sharks to be between 1.5 and two metres in length.
“DPIRD is monitoring the situation and will have a boat on the water tomorrow as part of its shark tagging research program in the Swan Canning Estuary,” a spokesperson said.
“The City of Fremantle will be closing beaches along that section of the river.”
A shark warning was posted to the SharkSmart website on Wednesday afternoon, advising of the closures.
The vision was taken at the same site where 16-year-old Stella Berry was killed by a bull shark in 2023.
Berry had jumped off a jet ski near the bridge to swim with dolphins when she was bitten by the shark, which was later identified by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Bull sharks are known to nest in the inlets of the Swan River, and while sightings of them are not unusual, marine biologists said any potential school was noteworthy.
A shark tagging program set up shortly after Berry’s death, but it has only caught and released two juvenile bull sharks in the Swan Canning Estuary since its inception.
“The low catch rate of bull sharks is consistent with [the department’s] historical research information,” the SharkSmart website said.
“In the last 24 years (2000-2023) there have been 104 recorded bull shark captures in Western Australia. This excludes recreational and commercial fishing activity.”
Commercial fisher Glen Foxton, who operates in the Swan River, told Radio 6PR it was difficult to quantify just how many bull sharks were in the river system.
“I’ve only caught one shark that had ever been tagged … I don’t think anyone’s ever truly got a handle on where they are,” he said.
He said in his experience, bronze whalers were more common.
“I’ve seen bronzies pretty much all through the river up to the causeway, a lot around the Como area, Matilda Bay and quite a lot outside of the Raffles near Canning Bridge.”
The department said there were also three shark monitoring receivers in the Swan Canning Estuary at East Fremantle, Blackwall Reach and near Canning Bridge, which provide near real-time notifications of tagged shark activity via the app and website.
Speaking after the teenager was killed in 2023, Dr Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said bull sharks were uniquely adapted to live in rivers, with adults cruising near and in river mouths during summer periods to pup and breed.
“Bulls tend to give birth in estuaries where the pups will swim upstream and spend the first five or so years of life in the relative safety of upper reaches of rivers until they’re big enough to head downstream to the ocean,” he said.
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Hannah Murphy is a journalist with WAtoday.Connect via email.
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