'Fluffy' the shark to be released after night in aquarium

The shark was washed up on Manly Beach. Photo / Instagram

An injured juvenile great white shark found washed up on a Sydney beach is expected to be returned to the ocean after spending the night in an aquarium.

The 1.5m-long shark, nicknamed "Fluffy", was found thrashing around on the shore of Manly Beach at about midday local time yesterday, prompting some onlookers to unsuccessfully drag it back out to sea.

The shark, which appeared to have some superficial injuries, was later taken to the nearby Fairy Bower ocean pool so it could rest for a few hours under the gaze of stunned beachgoers.

Marine experts then transferred the shark on a stretcher in a ute to Manly Sea Life Sanctuary so it could be monitored in an isolation tank overnight.

The sanctuary's senior aquarist Robbie McCracken said the shark was doing well.

"He has had a chance to rest and recoup and hopefully we will be able to he release him a bit later today," he told the Nine Network.

The sanctuary is waiting for the all-clear from New South Wales Fisheries to take the shark back out to sea for release.

"This animal is better suited to recovery out in its environment," McCraken said. "We are hoping that it sort of mistakenly found its way into an area it didn't intend to be and got a bit tired and exhausted and then stressed with the waves and all the people around it.

"Hopefully when we let it back out quite a ways offshore in much deeper water it will be able to recover."

McCraken said it was a mystery why the shark tried to beach itself.

"These great white sharks usually are animals that would tend to be offshore a bit, out in the deeper more unrestricted waters,' he said.

"This one for whatever reason found its way up into the beaches of Manly and then into the surf zone where it came into a bit of grief. That is where we were able to step in and sort of intervene."

Shark in #Manly bower pool right now. She just washed up on Manly beach. Beautiful to see such a gorgeous animal pic.twitter.com/T51gVsAZMq

— Alex Martiniuk (@AlexMartiniuk) September 11, 2017

- AAP