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Mr Vella’s comments were prompted by a close call at Surf Beach on the weekend, when a local teenager was bitten on the hand by what is thought to have been a shark.

While there have been no recordings of shark attacks in the local area in recent history, it is Mr Vella’s opinion that shark sightings over the past three years have increased by 300 per cent.

“(Local lifesavers) are seeing more of them while we are out on skis and surf boats, and fishermen are pulling out juvenile sharks at a good rate,” he said.

“The problem is, those juvenile sharks will grow to be big sharks, and there are lots of them out there.”

Mr Vella said, from his conversations with local fishermen, who before the introduction of the Marine Park 12 months ago would pull around 500 sharks from local waters each year, it appeared the sharks were beginning to drift inwards.

“Not to say it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but we don’t have any netting and we don’t have shark fishermen anymore. The numbers are going to increase and it could eventually be a problem,” he said.

“Fisheries are going to have to look at the situation because putting in a Marine Park changes the dynamics of everything. We need to be able to co-exist, but I’m paying a lot more attention to what’s in the water at the moment, that’s for sure.”

Lifeguards treated the 19-year-old’s bloody hand after he emerged from the water at Surf Beach at 4.30pm on Saturday.

A spokesman from Surf Life Saving NSW said the injuries were most likely sustained from a shark bite, but because the man did not see what attacked him and no sharks were sighted in the area, nothing had been confirmed.

“A gentleman came out of the water towards the lifesaver with his hand all bleeding. The lifesaver noticed there were some distinctive marks and some scrape marks where he’s pulled away,” he said.