Two large sharks have been captured off Sydney beaches in the past week, following the fatal mauling of British dive instructor Simon Nellist.
The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has confirmed the sharks have been captured on SMART drumlines in recent days, before being tagged and released.
Officials said neither creature was suspected to be the "at least three metre" long great white suspected of killing 35-year-old Simon - rather, the two animals were tiger sharks ranging from 1.5 to almost two metres.
In a statement supplied to 9news.com.au, the DPI said the two sharks were tagged and released about one kilometre further offshore.
"Neither of these sharks are suspected to have been involved in the tragic Little Bay incident on 16 February,” the statement read.
The first of these sharks was captured off Clovelly at 1.37pm on February 20, while the second was tagged a day later off Malabar/Long Bay, close to where Simon was attacked.
The Brit’s death sent shockwaves around Sydney as the city’s first shark-related fatality in almost 60 years.
Simon, a British expat, was mauled to death while training for a charity ocean swim.
The four-metre-long shark struck while he was swimming at Buchan Point near Little Bay, Sydney earlier this month.
Simon, who used to be in the RAF, has family in the UK and was getting ready to marry his Australian girlfriend, Jessie Ho.
It's understood that their wedding was tragically delayed because of Covid.
Originally from Penzance in Cornwall, Simon moved to Australia and threw himself into water-based activities, including becoming a scuba instructor at a Sydney school.
Tributes have flooded in from loved ones of the man who seemed to be adored by everyone and who loved the ocean.
The DPI is subsequently installing 15 of the drumlines along the coast, from Little Bay Beach to Bondi daily.
"DPI Fisheries staff have been on the water in the Sydney area since first light Thursday morning 17 February, deploying SMART drumlines, when weather permits," the DPI said.
"SMART drumlines are deployed and retrieved daily, weather permitting, until 30 June under the 2021/22 Shark Management Program."
SMART drumlines are one of the few non-lethal methods of shark control.
The drumlines are anchored to the seafloor and send an alert to officials once an animal is caught on a seperate hook.
Authorities are currently conducting a wide-ranging search for the shark responsible for Simon’s death.
However, wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta has said it was unlikely the animal responsible would ever be found, due to sharks “not being known to be territorial animals”.
Great whites are capable of swimming large distances in short periods of time.
