Some of Australia’s beaches have been impacted by several shark attacks during the height of the busy summer season. According to CNN, approximately “40 beaches along the coast of New South Wales (NSW) remain closed after four shark attacks in 48 hours.” All the attacks have been attributed to bull sharks. #Australia: Australia's New South Wales state is reeling after four separate shark attack incidents along the coast in the last two days. Read more: https://t.co/UbJvlIGhZI#OceanConditions pic.twitter.com/iQfo9oXcae — The American Geographical Society (@AmericanGeo) January 20, 2026 CNN has more: Bull sharks typically inhabit warmer waters up the coast but move further down the coastline towards Sydney’s most popular beaches during the summer months. Last weekend saw some of the heaviest rainfall in Sydney over 24 hours for at least a decade, creating the perfect mix of conditions for potentially lethal encounters, experts say. “We do get a lot of shark sightings, or people being bumped by sharks, but to have four incidents where all the victims have been actually attacked by sharks is really uncommon,” said Steve Pearce, the CEO of NSW Surf Life Saving, whose volunteers patrol the state’s beaches on weekends. Bull sharks have the unique ability to live in both fresh and marine water. When heavy rain flushes food from the estuaries into the ocean, they tend to follow it, and feed by bite as the water quality makes it almost impossible to see. One of the attacks led to the death of a 12-year-old boy attacked by a shark at a popular cliff-jumping spot. Australian boy, 12, dies following shark attack while swimming at popular cliff-jumping spot https://t.co/9k0tkWnaxl pic.twitter.com/doXHzIIBcW — New York Post (@nypost) January 25, 2026 The New York Post explained further: A 12-year-old Australian boy who had been clinging to life after a shark attack last week died from severe injuries suffered when a suspected bull shark took a single bite while he was swimming in the famous Sydney Harbour. Nico Antic was cliff-jumping with two friends at Jump Rock near Shark Beach in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse just before 4:20 p.m. local time on Jan. 18 when he entered the water outside the area protected by anti-shark nets. The enclosures are physical barriers designed to reduce the chances of large sharks entering designated swimming areas. While in the water, Nico was bitten once by the shark on both legs, causing catastrophic injuries and massive blood loss. Authorities said major tissue and blood vessels were severed by the vicious bite. Immediately after the attack, one of Nico’s friends jumped into the water and pulled him toward the rocks. Another friend helped lift Nico onto a rock platform as emergency responders rushed to the scene. Police and emergency crews applied tourniquets in an effort to stem the bleeding before transporting Nico by boat to a nearby ferry wharf. An ambulance then rushed him to the hospital, where he received a blood transfusion during transport after the tourniquets proved insufficient to stop the blood loss. Within hours, Nico underwent emergency surgery at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick and was placed into a medically induced coma. 9 News Australia provided further coverage: