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

Over 50 years a surfer for half a century and, throughout those years, he says he seldom thought about sharks.

"You understand you're stepping into their environment, so you're cautious," the senior surfer remarked.

But his confidence in the ocean was shattered in recent weeks.

He'd gone for a ocean outing with his companions one Saturday morning at the beach area in the beach communities north of Sydney. Not long after the surfer got out of the surf, companion surfer the experienced surfer was tragically lost by a great white shark.

"It has disturbed us a bit," the surfer confesses. Mercury and his identical sibling Mike were recognized in the local community, he continues: "You'd always say greetings."

The nation Deadliest Spot for Marine Encounters

The country is home to some of the globally renowned coastal areas. Above 80% of the citizens lives on the shoreline, so an early morning swim or surf is typical for numerous of people each day.

Yet there are individuals who think that common practice is growing more dangerous.

One local is among them.

The elderly Sydney resident recalls gawking at enormous white sharks hauled in by fishing crews as a child, during the time the now-protected species could still be lawfully captured.

Seeing these dead beasts suspended by their rear fins provoked a "execution-style" sensation, he describes, but not terror. Sharks were animals of the marine depths, he thought, and he rode waves in the more shallow inlets.

However half a decade back, his daughter his daughter was nipped by a pig eye shark while swimming on the marine park. Although she lived through, it made the father worried about the animals – something that grows with each dramatic headline about an incident.

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

Though 'The victim was only the second individual lost by a shark encounter in the metropolitan area over the past 60 years, it's little comfort to those who commonly use the city's beaches.

All board enthusiast spoken to in the period after the surfer's death said they believe marine predator observations in shallow waters are growing rising.

"We occasionally might have seen a dark shadow, but it may have been a ocean creature," says the local. "Currently, I observe them frequently."

Some concern that shark numbers are increasing rapidly, after several types - featuring the world's two deadliest ocean hunters, large predators and tiger sharks - were granted varying degrees of safeguarding in the nation's oceans.

There is minimal scientific study on marine predator statistics to accurately assess either way – but specialists suggest an rise in observations doesn't necessarily mean there are more sharks.

Conservation specialists propose that heating marine waters are altering the swimming and eating habits of sharks. But experts say any rise in sightings is primarily due to more and more people venturing into the ocean, and they are amplified by social media.

The chance of being nipped by a ocean hunter here is still extremely small. People are numerous times more likely to experience water-related fatality. It is true, however, that the country is a shark attack danger zone.

Australia places only behind the US - a country with 13 times the population - for predator encounters, and it tops the world for fatal attacks, as per the worldwide tracking system.

The tracking system only tracks "unprovoked" encounters – excluding those potentially prompted by people through actions such as underwater hunting – but a fuller record of all reported marine encounters in the nation is kept by Taronga Conservation Society.

The data indicates that marine incidents have broadly been rising over recent decades. Thus far this time there have been multiple deadly incidents - all unprovoked.

Barriers 'Comparable to a Tissue in a Water Body'

NSW had been planning to experiment reducing its deployment of shark nets – its most established predator prevention technique – when the latest fatal attack took place.

Marine barriers have been implemented in NSW since nearly a century and presently are usually deployed on numerous coastal areas from late winter through to March. Aside from Queensland, it is the only state that maintains them.

It cannot be done to completely enclose entire beaches – ocean conditions are very forceful and would readily wash the nets away.

Rather, the predator meshes are approximately 492ft in length and rest a few metres beneath the water's surface. While anchored to the sea floor at points, they fail to touch the seafloor. So marine predators can go above, under and around them.

"It resembles placing a paper into the water body," Research center Researcher a shark researcher explained.

Local authorities says predator meshes are "not created to establish a total barrier between beachgoers and marine animals" but alternatively seek to "catch certain species" during any {hunts