Byron Bay’s Main Beach was officially reopened to the public for water activities at midday today (Monday) after an earlier shark sighting.

Surf Life Clubs throughout NSW are to have new publicly accessible emergency kits for treating shark bites attached to their buildings.

‘Hot enough for ya?’ Where I grew up that was how people greeted each other on a sweltering summer’s day. It was a tongue-in-cheek way of saying it’s hot, can you take it? Is this the heat you ordered?

The other day my friend said, ‘I don’t think I am going surfing today, the beach is a bit sharkey’. It’s something only people who live here, who know the water, say. I don’t think ‘sharkey’ is an official adjective that one can use to describe a body of water which contains said sharks. I don’t even know if it’s spelt with an ‘e’. But when someone who surfs everyday says the water is a bit sharkey – I don’t go in.

NSW Greens MP and healthy oceans spokesperson Cate Faehrmann is calling on the Minns government to abandon the use of shark nets in NSW after yesterday’s release of a shocking report into the numbers of animals caught in nets over the last summer.

Animal conservationist groups are appalled at a decision by the NSW government to reinstate shark nets in coastal waters starting in spring.

A large school of whaler sharks was spotted at Evans Head yesterday, causing the beach to be closed for most of the day.

In the second part of this two part series, Member for Ballina Tamara Smith discusses more of the issues that are important to her, and the Ballina community.

Tweed Councillor James Owen (Liberal) and Deputy Mayor Reece Byrnes (Labor) are calling on the NSW state government to supply more funding for shark mitigation.

Pro surfer Matt Wilkinson had a close encounter with the shark kind at Sharpes Beach near Ballina yesterday.