There is no doubt that the attack is a horrible tragedy, and sympathies lie with those who knew Mr Slater as they come to terms with what has happened.

But as the weather begins to warm, the incident will also heat up a debate that has dogged Australian summers.

The value of shark nets as a deterrent has long been questioned by environmental groups, who last year described them as offering "a false sense of security" at too high a cost to aquatic ecosystems.

While supporters point to the fact that this week's Gold Coast tragedy was the first attack on a beach bearing a net in decades, critics point to their deadly impact on non-target marine life. Humane Society International in August 2019 urged the NSW government to scrap the shark-net program, which covers 51 beaches from Wollongong to Newcastle. They include Stockton, Nobbys, Blacksmiths and Catherine Hill Bay.

Marine campaigner Lawrence Chlebeck said in 2019 many sharks were caught on the inside of nets, and 94 per cent of catches are turtles, rays and other creatures.

"It's a fallacy that the nets keep sharks away from where people are using the water," he said. "These nets could even be attracting large sharks to the area because of struggling marine wildlife caught in the nets."

The Department of Primary Industries has pointed to six decades without an attack on a netted NSW beach but concedes they are no guarantee. Hunter Surf Lifesaving's Henry Scruton said his focus was firmly on human life along the region's coast.

Politically, the answer is simply that if it is not broken do not fix it. Aerial patrols and drum lines have bolstered beach defences as calls to remove nets have fallen on deaf ears in Macquarie Street.

As 2015's record Newcastle beach closures showed, the simple fact is that the water we flock to is the shark's domain.

No one wishes to see preventable or unnecessary deaths on our coast, and so the shark net debate will go on. May another 62 years pass before the Gold Coast must again weigh it so gravely.