“To be honest, I did have some thoughts about, oh, why am I going out here?” Core recalled on Thursday.

“As we were going out, my young son, Parker, turned to me and said ... ‘My heart’s pounding.’ I said, ‘Yeah, mine’s beating pretty fast too,’” Core added.
The three men had used crab rakes — a garden rake-like tool for digging small crabs from sand — to move the shark into deeper water by the time the father and son arrived.

Core said he decided against pushing the shark himself.

“They … got it into deeper water where I thought it’s probably not a good idea to go any further. That’s its territory and I’ll stay back,” he said.

Core said the rescuers later told him they’d never seen a beached shark before.

Macquarie University wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta said while shark strandings were not common, they were becoming more visible through social media.

There could be a number of reasons why marine animals like sharks might strand, including illness and injury. The shark could also have chased prey into the shallows, Pirotta said.

“If you see something like this, human safety comes first and foremost,” Pirotta said. “You can contact environmental authorities … who will get someone appropriate to come and assist.”