The section of Swan River where a teenage schoolgirl was fatally mauled by a shark on Saturday will be reopened on Monday afternoon and water patrols in the area will end.

Stella Berry, 16, died on the beach near the old Fremantle traffic bridge after being attacked while swimming near a pod of dolphins as her friends on a jetski watched on.

The section of river where schoolgirl Stella Berry was mauled by a shark will reopen on Monday afternoon.

The City of Fremantle confirmed the waterways would be reopened to the public at 3.30pm, following the once-in-a-century tragedy.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the state government would consider what, if any, safety measures could be introduced to prevent another attack, once it received a report from the Department of Fisheries.

“This is a very, very sad and tragic event and totally unexpected and shocking for the young woman involved and the family,” he said.

“These things are difficult to predict, no one’s at fault and it’s just terribly sad.

“If there’s anything that can be improved, we’ll look at any such measures.”

The update comes as Stella’s parents, both school teachers, paid tribute to their “darling daughter”.

“She was a beautiful and loving big sister and the best daughter we could have hoped for,” they said in a family statement.

“Stella loved creating art and spending times with her friends, particularly at the river and beach. She had her skippers ticket and often took her friends out on the river for a day of skurfing.”

Shark attack victim Stella Berry, right, showcasing a shark-proof ocean pool she and a classmate created for a Year 5 engineering project in 2017.Credit:The Post Newspaper

An article from The Post Newspaper, published in 2017, featured the then-Year 5 St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls student showcasing a shark-proof ocean pool model for Cottesloe beach.

The engineering project included a barrier which would allow fish to enter the area, but not sharks.

“It’s just like playing out in the ocean, but there are no sharks,” Stella’s project partner told The Post.

While Western Australia has recorded 20 shark fatalities since 2000, Stella’s tragic death is the only one to have occurred in a river and not the ocean.

WA Fisheries Minister Don Punch said despite the species of shark not yet being confirmed, authorities believed the predator responsible was a bull shark which had likely swum in from the ocean, some 2.5 kilometres away.

Experts said bull sharks were known to travel up the river to breed in the summer and could also be attracted by active marine life.

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