Experience paddler Damien Rider has encountered a shark off Bar Beach on Thursday morning, midway through a trip to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect.
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Mr Rider is paddling from the Gold Coast to Sydney to raise awareness for the cause.
He left Stockton this morning accompanied by another paddler from Stockton Surf Club.
They were paddling about 800m offshore, about 200m on the ocean side of the shark nets off Bar Beach, when they noticed a shark swimming to the side of them.
They saw it come up again alongside and then they noticed that it had come around in front of them, and estimate the shark to be between 3 and 3.5 metres.
Once the shark got in front of them, the pair decided they should get out of the water and when they came into Merewether Beach the shark followed them in.
A council spokesperson said the shark alarm was sounded at Merewether and Dixon Park beaches; however, both beaches were already closed due to rough surf.
"At this time, council is taking precautionary measures to be sure that the shark has moved back out of the beach areas, sending the lifeguards out on jet ski patrols as well as requesting an air survey from the Westpac helicopter if possible," they said.
