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 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

Crossing the Tideline is a education podcast hosted by Brett Burcher, with 12 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Brett Burcher hosts Crossing the Tideline, a education show with 12 episodes published.

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  Episode #12

  Ep 12 | Anna Breytenbach | Interspecies Communication & Shark Intelligence | Crossing the Tideline

  Aug 15, 20261h 29m

  Anna Breytenbach is a South African interspecies communicator. That means she communicates with animals, not through behaviour observation or science, but through direct energetic exchange. She has worked with big cats, elephants, wolves and wild predators across the world. She has also communicated with Great White Sharks. Brett came across Anna on the Telepathy Tapes podcast, then a friend sent him a video of her speaking about shark human interactions at the Byron Bay lighthouse, filmed just after the cluster of Great White incidents there in 2015. The questions it raised wouldn't leave him alone. If we could talk to Great Whites, what would they tell us? Do they sense us? Do they want to harm us? What role do any of us play in this? This conversation goes to those questions directly. Anna shares what Great Whites have communicated to her about why they approach humans, what they make of us as a species, how shark nets and culling programs register to them, and what they would ask of us if they could. She also talks about species survival syndrome, the orca pair hunting Great Whites off Cape Town, and the Aboriginal increase site practices that parallel so much of what this podcast has been circling. The conversation also gets personal. Brett opens up about the conflict between wanting to reach a place of peace in the water and the reality of hyper vigilance that trauma leaves behind. Anna's response to that is one of the most useful things said in the series so far.

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  Episode #11

  Ep 11 | Dr Riley Elliot | NZ Shark Tracker | Crossing the Tideline

  Aug 2, 20261h 42m

  Dr Riley Elliott is one of the world's leading shark scientists. Before that he was, and still is, a surfer and diver from New Zealand trying to understand the animals he shared the ocean with. That curiosity has taken him around the world studying Great White Sharks, tracking their movements, producing documentaries and trying to communicate the science to people who actually need it. In this conversation we get into the migration of Great Whites between New Zealand and Australia, what decades of research is beginning to reveal, and why there are still so many questions that science can't confidently answer. Riley talks about how Great Whites navigate vast stretches of open ocean and why understanding their movements matters for both conservation and public safety. We also spend a lot of time on mitigation. Drones, electronic deterrents, shark nets, public perception and political decision making. Riley speaks openly about what appears to be working, what isn't, and why he thinks the uncertainty needs to be spoken about more honestly than it currently is. He also understands what shark incidents do to communities firsthand, having visited Elliston in South Australia and worked around several fatalities in New Zealand. And in a world first, he tells us what actually had a nibble of Ed Sloane's foot at the 2026 Raglan WCT event.

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  Episode #10

  Ep 10 | Michael Hoarau | Reunion Island: Bull Sharks, Bans & Lethal Measures | Crossing the Tideline

  Jul 19, 20261h 20m

  Between 2011 and 2019, Reunion Island experienced 30 shark attacks, 11 of them fatal. Bull sharks were responsible for 90% of them, on a small French island of 900,000 people in the Indian Ocean, in the most popular tourist and surfing areas on the west coast. For a place that small, it was unfathomable to live through. Michael Hoarau runs operations for the Shark Safety Unit on Reunion Island and has spent years deep in the data, the fieldwork and the politics of trying to reduce shark encounters in the aftermath of those years. Reunion is regularly referenced internationally as a benchmark for shark risk management. With Bull shark activity surging along the east coast of Australia this year, particularly in Sydney, it felt like the right time to have this conversation. Michael walks us through what those years actually felt like on the island, the community divisions that opened up and why nobody could ever agree on what caused the spike in the first place. He explains what the French government put in place, including a permanent ban on surfing and swimming outside the lagoon, the world's first large scale exclusion net trials, and a shark control program using smart drum lines that has now run for 12 years. The numbers are striking. In 2016 alone, 52 bull sharks were caught on the drum lines in targeted areas. That same effort now yields an average of four or five bull sharks a year. There has not been a single shark attack on Reunion Island since May 2019. The back half of the conversation goes deep on the balance between lethal and non lethal measures, what the shark control program has actually taught them about bull shark behaviour and why Michael says the answer is never one thing.

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  Episode #9

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

  Jul 5, 20261h 22m

  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.

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  Episode #8

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

  Jun 25, 20261h 11m

  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.

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