Experimental prototype — not an official warning system

Mallacoota

East Gippsland, VIC · East Gippsland Shire · Relative human–shark interaction conditions

← East coast corridorEast GippslandMOCKAssessed 7 Nov 2026, 8:49 pmModel 0.1.0-dev

Temperate range-edge

Victoria is represented as a temperate range-edge. Bull-shark thermal suitability is typically low here. White shark / bronze whaler / sevengill assemblages dominate. A Moreton Bay current hypothesis does not extrapolate to Port Phillip.

Bull shark conditions

MODERATEConfidence VERY LOWbull-shark-0.1-dev

Bull shark ecological conditions are assessed as MODERATE (development model bull-shark-0.1-dev) with very low confidence. This is not an attack probability and is not the mixed-species 0–100 interaction index.

Factors increasing conditions

  • Recent rainfall proxy is elevated (catchment runoff hypothesis).

Factors reducing conditions

  • Coastal SST ~17.3°C is only weakly favourable on this development thermal curve.
  • No live authorised bull-shark detections in vShark.

Uncertainty

  • EAC / current velocity is a candidate variable and is not connected.
  • Acoustic receiver health is UNKNOWN — SharkSmart/IMOS tracking is not machine-connected.
  • River discharge gauges are not connected; rainfall is only a proxy.

Environmental indicators are not confirmed shark observations. This is not an attack prediction and is not the mixed-species 0–100 index.

Range-edge node. Temperate SST. Bull sharks are not treated as a regular assemblage; white sharks more relevant.

Current state
MODERATE46.6/100

Experimental · uncalibrated

Confidence: MODERATE(58%)

Evidence freshness: 7 Nov 2026, 8:49 pm

Dominant evidence class for the index: Environmental habitat suitability

Why?

  • •No live shark detections — this is not an operational alert
  • •Water temperature (~17.0°C) favours great white shark thermal suitability
  • •Elevated expected human water use

Shark interaction risk is assessed as MODERATE (public index 46.6/100) with moderate combined confidence. Primary drivers: No live shark detections — this is not an operational alert; Water temperature (~17.0°C) favours great white shark thermal suitability; Elevated expected human water use. No live shark-detection feed is connected. This is an experimental development assessment, not an operational warning. Always follow lifeguard instructions, beach closures, and official NSW SharkSmart advice. vShark is not a government or SLSA product.

Location map

Species conditions

Great white sharkPs 0.78 · contrib 0.430
Thermal 1.00 · Detection 0.00
Bull sharkPs 0.33 · contrib 0.052
Thermal 0.02 · Detection 0.00
Tiger sharkPs 0.32 · contrib 0.072
Thermal 0.07 · Detection 0.00

Victorian temperate range-edge. Bull-shark thermal suitability typically low. White shark / bronze whaler / sevengill more relevant. Not a Moreton pulse extension.

Recent detections / sightings

No shark observations are stored for this location. That is a data gap, not evidence that sharks are absent. SharkSmart WA is not machine-connected.

CACHED rows are curated public notices, not a live tagged-shark feed, and do not enter the 0–100 as live detections.

Environmental state

  • air_temperatureLIVE22.9 °C11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • rainfall_24hLIVE0.8 mm11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • rainfall_7dLIVE24.3 mm11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • sstLIVE17.3 °C11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • swell_heightLIVE1 m11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • wind_direction_degLIVE177 deg11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm
  • wind_speed_knLIVE6.2 kn11 Nov 2026, 10:30 pm

Human exposure

Class
unknown
Popularity proxy
unknown
Model exposure
0.70

Estimated, not observed counts. No false precision.

Persistent spatial context

  • inlet
  • beach
  • estuary

Geomorphology is persistent context, not a transient observation.

Data gaps

  • turbidity proxy
  • live detections
  • recent detections

Missing data reduces confidence; it does not mean low risk.

Nearby locations

Data coverage

Where vShark knows little is as important as where it knows more. Missing coverage does not mean low risk.

  • Shark observation coverageNONE

    NSW SharkSmart is not connected. MOCK detections do not enter the score.

  • Ocean coverageMODERATE

    Open-Meteo marine at the Northern Beaches centroid.

  • Weather coverageMODERATE

    Open-Meteo weather at the Northern Beaches centroid.

  • Ecology coverageLOW

    iNaturalist and climatologies are labelled context and do not enter the score.

  • Human exposure coverageLOW

    Provisional calendar and swell proxy only.

  • Sensor coverageNONE

    No authorised detection network connected.

  • Historical coverageLOW

    Assessment history is append-only from this prototype, not a long operational archive.

NOW / HISTORY — recent assessments

Append-only model outputs. New model versions do not rewrite these rows.

WhenBandIndexConfidenceModel
7 Nov 2026, 8:49 pmMODERATE46.6MODERATE0.1.0-dev
5 Nov 2026, 2:19 amMODERATE29.8MODERATE0.1.0-dev
19 Oct 2026, 4:40 amMODERATE40.6MODERATE0.1.0-dev
13 Oct 2026, 7:39 pmMODERATE37.2MODERATE0.1.0-dev
9 Oct 2026, 9:09 pmMODERATE37.2MODERATE0.1.0-dev
9 Oct 2026, 7:24 pmMODERATE37.2MODERATE0.1.0-dev
5 Oct 2026, 5:52 amMODERATE47.3MODERATE0.1.0-dev
3 Oct 2026, 7:03 pmMODERATE47.4MODERATE0.1.0-dev
1 Oct 2026, 9:04 pmMODERATE37MODERATE0.1.0-dev
26 Sept 2026, 10:24 amMODERATE44.8MODERATE0.1.0-dev
23 Sept 2026, 2:50 pmMODERATE33.6MODERATE0.1.0-dev
22 Sept 2026, 1:22 pmMODERATE32.3MODERATE0.1.0-dev
21 Sept 2026, 4:05 pmMODERATE24.5MODERATE0.1.0-dev

Evidence hierarchy

  1. Direct recent detection — Tagged receiver, verified instrument detection, or equivalent in the relevant window.
  2. Verified sighting — Sighting confirmed by a responsible authority or trained observer.
  3. Multiple corroborated observations — Independent reports that agree in space and time.
  4. Strong ecological proxy — Prey aggregation, carcass, or similar with documented association — still a proxy.
  5. Environmental habitat suitability — Temperature, depth, and similar suitability — not presence.
  6. Historical seasonal association — Climatology / phenology prior. Not a live observation.
  7. Long-term background prevalence — Baseline occurrence in the region. Weakest for now-casting.

Methodology

Relative interaction risk, not attack probability. Official advice outranks this page. Methodology · Data sources