UPDATE 1.15PM: A shark has been spotted for the second time off the coast of Merewether beach with authorities forced to shut down the patrolled swimming areas for the rest of the day.
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Reports this time of a three-metre shark mean no one can enter the water between Bar Beach and Merewether.
Surf Life Saving will monitor the water for the rest of Sunday, with hopes of reopening the beaches to surfers and swimmers on Monday.
EARLIER: NIPPERS, surfers and early-morning swimmers were evacuated from the surf at Merewether, Dixon and Bar beaches after a two-metre shark was spotted off the coast.
The alarm was sounded about 9am Sunday and authorities were forced to close the beaches.
Announcements were made over the loud speaker calling for all surfers to return to shore, confirming the shark sighting as a "big one". According to eye-witnesses there were large numbers of bait fish about 300 metres offshore and this is where the shark was spotted.
Merewether Nippers were able to move their activities onto the sand and into the Newcastle Ocean Baths.
NSW Surf Life Savings jet-ski patrols were sent out looking for the animal, but it was not located. Bar and Dixon beaches were reopened about 10.30am, but Merewether remained closed due to deteriorating surf conditions.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Shark sightings in the Hunter | photos
The shark alarm has been used frequently in the last week, a sighting even closed several packed beaches on Australia Day.
It follows the attack of Australian Antarctic Division veteran Rick Burbury who was mauled by a shark in Lake Macquarie, near Morisset this month.
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