A juvenile great white shark washed up on Manly Beach in Sydney’s north has been taken to an aquarium for a health check after becoming a temporary tourist attraction in a seaside swimming pool.

The 1.5m shark, now named “Fluffy”, ended up in the Fairy Bower pool for assessment, attracting hundreds of spectators, after wildlife experts attempted several times to send it back out to sea and failed.

Rob Townsend, life sciences manager at Manly Sealife Sanctuary, said he was asked what the animal’s name was by a small child, Fluffy was the first thing that came into his head and “too many people overheard”.

Townsend and his team were called to the beach mid morning on Monday and moved the shark to the pool to check its well-being, before relocating it to the aquarium overnight.

It slowly cruised around the pool with people in the water helping direct it around as it bumped into the walls.

Townsend says “he’s doing alright” and after further assessment, they’re “really hopeful” they can take the shark out to sea and release it later today, potentially with a tracking device so they can monitor its further movements.

“White sharks don’t do well long-term in captivity,” he said.

Why the juvenile animal ended up repeatedly beaching itself on the sand is “still a mystery and our major concern”.

While a feared ocean predator blamed for numerous attacks on humans, great whites are threatened species.

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