Crossing the Tideline

Brett Burcher

In 2023, Brett Burcher had a close encounter with a Great White Shark while surfing at his local beach in Forster, NSW. The entire incident was captured on drone, in clear blue water, from directly above. He was a new father with a three month old daughter at the time. That moment became the catalyst for Crossing the Tideline, a podcast sitting right at the line where certainty gives way to unpredictability, and where most of us, despite the risks, keep choosing to step in. Right now it has never been a more complex time to be an ocean user in Australia. Sightings, encounters and near misses are common. Conflicting theories, limited data, sensationalism and reactionary commentary leave coastal communities feeling confused, scared and frustrated. The car park chats are happening everywhere. This podcast is a series of those conversations, with people who occupy those same car parks but who also spend a lot of time learning, researching, responding to and living with shark related risk. Brett speaks with shark attack survivors, families of fatal attack victims, scientists, conservationists, first responders, policymakers, First Nations custodians, swimmers, surfers, mitigation experts and community members from a range of countries, coastlines and communities. The goal is simple. Better information, clearer thinking, calmer responses. So we can all make more informed decisions in and around the ocean. Crossing the Tideline is also a companion to an observational documentary of the same name, currently in production with Stitch Films & Regen Studios. Distributed by Madman Entertainment.

Episodes

  1. 1 day ago

    Ep 9 | Carl Musker | Surfers, Shark Data & the Fight for a Seat at the Table | Crossing the Tideline

    This episode I'm joined by Carl Musker from Sydney's Northern Beaches, one of the most shark-active stretches of coastline in the world right now. A Long Reef Boardriders member for more than 30 years, Carl is part of an alliance of surfers and community members who are pushing for stronger government action on shark mitigation. Carl is also a close friend of the Psilakis family and was surfing at Long Reef with Mercury on the morning he was fatally attacked. In this conversation, Carl explains why he believes surfers and others who frequent the ocean need to be listened to when it comes to government decision-making around shark management. He's been in council chambers, in meetings with local members, and alongside the Psilakis family at state government level and also helped build a simple community shark sighting and interaction logbook that has recorded over 100 engagements in its first four weeks. In this conversation Carl talks about what the community has been living through and the anxiety that's become part of everyday life on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The car park conversations about shark activity, beach closures, human safety and the lengths people are now going to just to feel comfortable entering the water. This chat with Carl was recorded on the 25th of April. This episode also features short contributions from Lucas Townsend from Surfing NSW on recent government drone funding announcements, filmmaker and surfer Will Sommerville on what it's felt like in the water lately and local business owner Matt Grainger on how the activity is hitting the community economically. Carl also recorded a message this week with an update on what's changed since we spoke.

    1hr 22min

  2. 25 June

    Ep 8 | Katie Thompson | Grief, Loss & Life After a Fatal Shark Attack | Crossing the Tideline

    On Father's Day, September 5 2021, Tim Thompson was fatally attacked by a shark while surfing at Shelley Beach, Emerald Beach near Coffs Harbour. He was 31 years old. His partner Katie Thompson was at home, eight months pregnant with their daughter Elka. She found out through a link to an ABC news article her mum sent her. Katie talks about the morning Tim died, an ordinary Sunday they had spent at home talking about how different the following Father's Day would be. How the news reached her. What the first weeks looked like when the logistics of death gave her something to do, and what happened when they stopped. Raising a newborn alone while carrying grief that nobody around her had a reference point for. Writing letters to Tim and to Elka because she couldn't find a single resource that spoke to what she was going through. And how five years on, she has moved from surviving to something that feels closer to thriving, even as she watches Elka begin to grapple with growing up without her dad. Katie also speaks about the media handling of Tim's death, the Bite Club community and why she eventually decided to share her story publicly. Support a shark deterrant rebate in NSW. https://jyem13.github.io/nsw-shark-rebate/

    1hr 11min

  3. 14 June

    Ep 7 | Dan Webber | What the Science Isn't Telling You | Crossing the Tideline

    Dan Webber is a journalist, surfer and longtime observer of the shark debate in Australia. He was in the water for two shark attacks during the Ballina cluster of 2014 and 2015, a two year period that saw twelve incidents across a 70km stretch of coastline between Evans Head and Byron Bay. Out of that experience he built the Ballina Shark Reports page, a real time community sighting tool that was running one shark report per day at its peak before the local mayor asked him to take it down. In the decade since, Dan has gone deep on the research. He's spoken at a Senate inquiry, written multiple academic pieces on shark mitigation technology, and contributed a chapter to an international book on the subject. His work sits in the top 1% of shark related articles on ResearchGate. He is not aligned with the mainstream scientific consensus on a number of issues, and he does not shy away from saying so. This conversation covers what it was actually like inside a community living through a cluster of attacks. How the media arrived, how the fear spread, and how a small group of surfers quietly kept paddling out and looking after each other. We also get into his views on shark nets and why he supports them when most others don't, his deep skepticism of smart drum lines, his theory on bold versus shy shark personalities, and his pointed criticism of what he sees as ideologically driven science that shapes policy in ways that don't serve ocean users.

    2h 19m

  4. 14 June

    Ep 6 | Senator Surfer | Shark Policy, Deterrents & Government Responsibility | Crossing the Tideline

    Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has spent 14 years in Australian politics fighting for ocean and environmental protection. He's also a surfer and diver who uses deterrence himself, has had his own unannounced Great White encounters off the Tasmanian coast, and made the trip out to the Neptune Islands to observe deterrent testing firsthand. He's stepping away from the Senate mid-2026, and this conversation catches him at a moment of genuine reflection. Pete doesn't sit comfortably on either side of the debate and that's what makes him worth listening to. We get into why he thinks drum lines and shark nets give communities a false sense of security rather than actual protection. Why the genetic data on adult white shark populations doesn't necessarily line up with what people are feeling in the water. And why he believes both the fear and the frustration in coastal communities are completely rational, even when the policy responses aren't. We also talk about what governments can and can't realistically be asked to do, the difference between risk and perception of risk, and what he thinks ocean users themselves need to take more ownership of. He also shares a story from diving with Great Whites off South Africa that shifted something in how he sees them. Hard to explain. Worth hearing. A conversation that goes a lot of places. One of the more honest takes on the political side of all this I've had so far.

    1hr 39min

  5. 1 June

    Ep 5 | Easkey Britton | Water, Healing & Our Relationship with the Ocean | Crossing the Tideline

    Easkey Britton is an Irish surfer, marine social scientist, writer and ocean advocate who has spent her life studying the relationship between people and water. Born into a surfing family on the northwest coast of Ireland, she competed internationally from the age of twelve and has spent the decades since trying to understand what the ocean does to us, and for us, and what we owe it in return. This one is different to the others in the series. Sharks barely get a mention. But water is where people and sharks find each other, and Easkey has a way of talking about that relationship that gets to something the science and statistics rarely reach. We talk about what it means to have your identity shaped by the ocean, and what happens when that connection gets broken. The healing properties of water, physically and psychologically, and why restoring that relationship after trauma is not something you can think your way through. The complexity of holding love for the ocean alongside genuine fear of it. And why our culture's tendency to want black and white answers makes all of this so much harder than it needs to be. Brett also opens up about where he is in his own process of rebuilding trust with the water, and what Easkey's books Salt Water in the Blood and Ebb and Flow have given him during that. A slower, more reflective conversation. One that sits in the questions rather than rushing toward answers.

    1hr 13min

  6. 27 May

    An Introduction to Crossing the Tideline

    In 2023, Brett Burcher had a close encounter with a Great White Shark while surfing at his local beach in Forster, NSW. The entire incident was captured on drone, in clear blue water, from directly above. He was a new father with a three month old daughter at home. That moment became the catalyst for Crossing the Tideline, a podcast sitting right at the line where certainty gives way to unpredictability, and where most of us, despite the risks, keep choosing to step in. Right now it has never been a more complex time to be an ocean user in Australia. Sightings, encounters and near misses are common. Conflicting theories, limited data, sensationalism and reactionary commentary leave coastal communities feeling confused, scared and frustrated. The car park chats are happening everywhere. This podcast is a series of those conversations, with people who occupy those same car parks but who also spend a lot of time learning, researching, responding to and living with shark related risk. Brett speaks with shark attack survivors, families of fatal attack victims, scientists, conservationists, first responders, policymakers, First Nations custodians, swimmers, surfers, mitigation experts and community members from a range of countries, coastlines and communities. The goal is simple. Better information, clearer thinking, calmer responses. So we can all make more informed decisions in and around the ocean. Crossing the Tideline is also a companion to an observational documentary of the same name, currently in production with Stitch Films & Regen Studios. Distributed by Madman Entertainment.

    13 min

  7. 19 May

    Ep 4 | Prof. Charlie Huveneers | Shark Deterrents, Population Debate & Risk | Crossing the Tideline

    Charlie Huveneers is a researcher and lecturer at Flinders University in South Australia, and one of the leading names in shark bite mitigation science in this country. For close to 20 years his team has been doing the fieldwork that most people only read about, testing deterrents on live sharks, studying Great White behaviour and trying to answer the questions that coastal communities are actually asking. This one gets into the practical stuff. We go through what the research actually shows on electric deterrents, how effective they are, how they were tested and what their limitations are. We also get into the population debate, what the data can and cannot tell us about whether Great White numbers are increasing, why those big discrepancies in population estimates exist, and why Charlie himself has grown to distrust the blanket statistics often used to reassure the public. That last point stuck with me. Here is someone who has spent two decades in this field, and he openly says the stats can be misleading and are not helpful for people who are in the water regularly in high risk areas. That felt important to hear from someone in his position. We also cover species management, the gap between what science knows and what gets communicated to ocean users, and what he thinks still needs to happen before we are anywhere near a real solution. No silver bullet yet. But a much clearer picture of where things actually stand.

    1hr 20min

  8. 18 May

    Ep 3 | Brinkley Davies | Shark Conservation and Communities | Crossing the Tideline

    Brinkley Davies grew up surfing the Yorke Peninsula and the West Coast of South Australia, two coastlines that have had more than their share of shark encounters, fatalities included. She is also a marine biologist, conservationist and diver who has spent years working alongside Great Whites, including three years on the cage diving boats out of Port Lincoln. That combination makes for a rare kind of conversation. Brinkley doesn't sit neatly on either side of the debate, and that's what makes her perspective so valuable. We talk about what it was like growing up surfing in SA when shark presence was just part of the deal, what she observed working that closely with Great Whites, the difference between surfing and diving in terms of how you read risk, and the environmental factors driving more frequent encounters along the SA and WA coasts. We also get into the mental health toll on coastal communities after clusters of attacks, what she saw happen to the people around Streaky Bay and Yorke Peninsula in recent years, the gap between what the data says and what people are actually feeling, and why better risk communication at a community level is something she feels strongly about. One of the more layered conversations in this series.

    1hr 30min

  9. 18 May

    Ep 2 | Dave Rastovich | Fear, Solitude & Reading the Ocean | Crossing the Tideline

    Dave Rastovich has spent more time in the ocean than most people spend indoors. A lifetime of surfing remote coastlines, alone, in all conditions, has given him a way of reading the water that is intuitive and deliberate. He has had to reckon with his own fear, now watching his son find his feet at the same breaks where he found his. This conversation goes to places I didn't expect. We talk about the tension between seeking solitude in the water and the vulnerability that comes with it. How Dave navigates fear and scenario building in his head when he's out there alone. The difference between a gut feeling and a spiral. And how reading the ocean, dolphins, fish activity, the mood of the water, becomes its own form of risk assessment. Dave also shares a couple of wild shark encounters of his own, including a close pass from a very large Great White at Broken Head that's hard to forget once you hear it. This one's about what it means to stay present in an environment that will always have the upper hand.

    1hr 34min

  10. 17 May

    Ep 1 | Dr Chris Lowe - Shark Lab CSULB | Shark Behaviour, Science and Risk | Crossing the Tideline

    For over 27 years, Dr Chris Lowe has been studying Great White Sharks on the beaches of California - one of the most densely populated coastlines in the world. As director of the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, his team uses drones, acoustic tagging and underwater cameras to track juvenile white sharks that spend their days metres from swimmers, mostly unnoticed. What they've found might surprise you. Sharks and people are sharing the water far more often than anyone realised, and bites remain extraordinarily rare. Brett sits down with Chris to unpack what the data actually shows: why juvenile whites behave the way they do, how California manages shark presence on public beaches, what research into shark hearing tells us about why attacks are so infrequent, and what Australia might learn from a system that has been doing this longer than anyone. It's a conversation that raises as many questions as it answers, and that's the point.

    1hr 41min

Trailer

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

In 2023, Brett Burcher had a close encounter with a Great White Shark while surfing at his local beach in Forster, NSW. The entire incident was captured on drone, in clear blue water, from directly above. He was a new father with a three month old daughter at the time. That moment became the catalyst for Crossing the Tideline, a podcast sitting right at the line where certainty gives way to unpredictability, and where most of us, despite the risks, keep choosing to step in. Right now it has never been a more complex time to be an ocean user in Australia. Sightings, encounters and near misses are common. Conflicting theories, limited data, sensationalism and reactionary commentary leave coastal communities feeling confused, scared and frustrated. The car park chats are happening everywhere. This podcast is a series of those conversations, with people who occupy those same car parks but who also spend a lot of time learning, researching, responding to and living with shark related risk. Brett speaks with shark attack survivors, families of fatal attack victims, scientists, conservationists, first responders, policymakers, First Nations custodians, swimmers, surfers, mitigation experts and community members from a range of countries, coastlines and communities. The goal is simple. Better information, clearer thinking, calmer responses. So we can all make more informed decisions in and around the ocean. Crossing the Tideline is also a companion to an observational documentary of the same name, currently in production with Stitch Films & Regen Studios. Distributed by Madman Entertainment.

Information

  • Creator
    Brett Burcher
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Brett Burcher
  • Show Website
    Crossing the Tideline

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