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The sea has traditionally been a major aspect of Glen Butler's life.

He's been a surfer for half a century and, in that time, he says he infrequently thought about ocean hunters.

"You recognize you're entering into their environment, so you're careful," the 61-year-old stated.

Yet the surfer's confidence while surfing was shaken in recent weeks.

He'd gone for a ocean outing with his companions one Saturday morning at Long Reef in the northern coastal region of Sydney. A few minutes after Mr Butler exited of the water, companion surfer the experienced surfer was tragically lost by a large marine predator.

"It's shaken us quite," the surfer confesses. The victim and his twin brother Mike were recognized in the local community, he notes: "You would regularly say hello."

Australia Deadliest Spot for Shark Attacks

Australia is host to many of the world's best beaches. Above 80% of the citizens dwells on the shoreline, so an early morning dip or wave session is typical for numerous of individuals every day.

However there are residents who believe that common practice is turning more risky.

A Sydney resident is among them.

The 66-year-old Sydneysider remembers looking at enormous great white sharks caught by fishermen as a kid, in the time the presently safeguarded marine life could still be lawfully captured.

Observing these lifeless creatures suspended by their tails elicited a "macabre" feeling, he recounts, but not terror. Sharks were animals of the marine depths, he believed, and he surfed in the more shallow bays.

Yet half a decade back, his daughter Anika was bitten by a marine predator while free-diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Although she was not fatally injured, it made him worried about the creatures – a concern that grows with each dramatic report about an attack.

"Such incidents affect me… I'm freaked out," he acknowledges.

Though 'The surfer was only the second person lost by a marine incident in Sydney over the past half-century, it's minimal reassurance to those who regularly visit the urban shorelines.

Each board enthusiast spoken to in the weeks after Psillakis' tragic incident stated they think shark sightings near the coastline are turning more frequent.

"We occasionally might have seen a dark shadow, but it might have been a dolphin," notes the resident. "Currently, I see them regularly."

Certain worry that shark counts are increasing rapidly, after various kinds - featuring the planet's most lethal ocean hunters, white sharks and striped sharks - were granted multiple types of safeguarding in the nation's oceans.

There's little scientific study on population counts to definitively tell any direction – but experts contend an growth in observations isn't always proof there are increased populations.

Conservation specialists propose that warming oceans are modifying the swimming and hunting patterns of marine predators. But scientists note any rise in sightings is largely due to increasing numbers of individuals entering the ocean, and they are amplified by online platforms.

The chance of being nipped by a shark in Australia is still minute. Individuals are numerous times more likely to suffer drowning. Indeed, nevertheless, that the country is a shark attack high-risk area.

It is only behind the US - a country with much larger the population - for marine incidents, and it ranks first the world for lethal encounters, as per the International Shark Attack File.

This record only monitors "unprovoked" events – excluding those potentially stimulated by individuals through practices such as underwater hunting – but a fuller database of all recorded shark interactions in the nation is maintained by Taronga Conservation Society.

The data indicates that shark attacks have generally been increasing over the past years. Currently this period there have been several fatal attacks - all non-induced.

Nets 'Like a Napkin in a Water Body'

New South Wales had been planning to trial reducing its use of marine barriers – its most established predator prevention method – when the most recent lethal encounter happened.

Marine barriers have been implemented in NSW since nearly a century and presently are usually deployed on multiple shorelines from late winter through to early autumn. Besides Queensland, it is the sole region that still uses them.

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

Instead, the marine barriers are around 150m in length and rest a multiple meters beneath the sea level. While anchored to the sea floor at spots, they do not extend to the seafloor. So ocean hunters can go above, below and around them.

"It resembles dropping a napkin into the swimming area," University of Sydney Professor a shark researcher commented.

Local authorities explains predator meshes are "not designed to create a total division between swimmers and predators" but rather attempt to "intercept target sharks" during any {hunts