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The family of Sydney shark attack victim Simon Nellist has remembered the 35-year-old as a "wonderful human being" and a "cherished son".

Releasing a statement following Mr Nellist's death, the family said he will be "terribly missed", according to the BBC.

"Simon was a gentle, kind and wonderful human being. He was a cherished fiancée, son, brother, uncle and friend," the statement said.

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"Simon was funny, compassionate and always had time for people. He had a rare gift of instantly being able to connect with others, gaining their trust and respect."

The family said Mr Nellist "had a great passion for nature and the sea, as well as being a very talented photographer."

They added that they were "very proud of him" and would "miss him terribly".

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Mr Nellist was swimming at Little Bay in the city's east on Wednesday afternoon when he was attacked by the shark, confirmed to be a great white by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

Human remains were found on Wednesday about 4.30pm and witnesses were left reeling after the confronting incident.

Mr Nellist's family are based in the UK and he leaves behind a partner in Sydney.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that the "wait is over" ahead of tomorrow's reopening of Australia's international borders.

Speaking at Melbourne Airport this morning, Mr Morrison defended the country's tight border restrictions over the past two years and said that because Australians "have done the hard yards" the country can now reopen to much needed tourism.

"We are very excited that from tomorrow international flights for visitors are able to return again," Mr Morrison said.

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"They can come and we start building once again our very important tourism economy right across the country, from our biggest cities, where I am today, to our far north, Queensland, regional locations and all around the country.

"You've done the work, you've pushed through. You've persevered, and now we can start going forward together."

Tourists will once again be welcomed into the country tomorrow after two years of being shut out, with the initial 50 flights expected to touch down on Australian soil within the first 24 hours.

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More than half of the 50 will land into Sydney's international airport, coming from countries like Singapore, Japan and the US.

With the influx of tourists, warnings have also been issued for a spike in influenza cases.

Authorities have reminded residents to make an appointment for the flu shot when it becomes available next month.

Travellers from all over the globe will now be eligible to visit Australia, however they must be double vaccinated before they fly.

"This is the exciting announcement the aviation sector has been waiting for," Australian Airports Association (AAA) Chief Executive James Goodwin said earlier this month.

"International travel is only at 15 per cent of pre-COVID levels so this is a positive step to help the recovery of the aviation and tourism sectors."

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Mr Goodwin noted domestic routes would also get a vital boost from the return of international travellers.

"International tourists don't just visit one Australian city," he said.

"They fly from state to state to see all of what our nation has to offer so it is vital all domestic borders reopen and stay open."

Both New South Wales and Victoria have recorded a drop in positive COVID-19 cases, reporting 5,582 and 4,867 new infections respectively.

In the past 24 hours NSW also recorded 21 additional deaths as a result of the virus and just under 1300 people were admitted to hospital.

In Victoria nine people lost their lives while positive with COVID-19 and 358 people were admitted to hospital.

READ MORE: International tourists to be welcomed across the country once again

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1495160792416727041https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1495156211984965633

Between the two states more than 15,000 known tests were carried out.

NSW currently boasts a three vaccine dose rate of residents aged over 16 of 50.8 per cent while Victoria boasts a rate of residents aged over 18 with three doses of 55 per cent.

Australia's international borders are set to reopen to fully-vaccinated tourists from tomorrow, when 50 overseas flights are due to land.

An earlier version of this story carried an incorrect number of cases for NSW, which has been since updated by NSW Health.

Caroline McKenna was in the final hour of a "wonderful" trip home to Ireland when her travel plans unravelled.

The 30-year-old teacher was ready to check-in for her flight back to Sydney when the Emirates staff member gave her a confused look and asked to see her ticket.

To Ms McKenna's disbelief, the attendant told her the third-party website she bought her ticket from had not paid the airline.

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The expat found the flexible return airfare on the Flight Network, which offered a cheaper alternative as ticket prices soared in the lead-up to Australia's December border reopening.

A fortnight before her flight back to Sydney, Ms McKenna decided to upgrade her ticket to business class, after she saved some money from not being able to travel.

She was initially suspicious when there was no change to her itinerary for days but the ticket was updated the day before her flight.

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With an hour until take-off, Ms McKenna and the Emirates staff member called the Flight Network to ask them to release the money to the airline but the customer service team couldn't help them in time.

Ms McKenna needed to be back in Australia for the first day of school but instead she was left "crying" after her gate closed.

"Flight Network left me stranded in Dublin with no alternative flight," she said.

Ms McKenna said she was left with no alternative but to book a flight the next day, which had one seat remaining and left her thousands of dollars out of pocket.

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"I'm a teacher who needs to get back for the start of the school year," she said.

Ms McKenna made it back to Sydney on this flight and has since shared her experience on her Instagram page, A County Down Under.

Her post attracted "hundreds of messages from people all over the world" with similar travel stories.

Company apologises for 'manual mistake'

A spokesperson for Flight Network parent company, the Etraveli Group, said a member of the customer relations team "contacted (Ms McKenna), apologised, compensated the customer and refunded the cost for the rebooking and the cost for the flexible ticket".

"We also asked the customer to send us the receipt for the new ticket so we can go through that cost as well," the spokesperson said.

"Unfortunately, we made a manual mistake which led to the customer ending up in the wrong queue and not getting a call from us.

"We apologise for this and will do our best to ensure it doesn't happen again."

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As of February, Ms McKenna said she was still working on getting a refund for the whole amount, including the return flight.

The expat initially booked with the Flight Network through travel search engine Skyscanner.

As a result, Ms McKenna said Skyscanner has assisted her with the process and has been "really helpful".

"We were sorry to hear that Caroline experienced a problem with her flight and can completely understand how stressful that must have been," a Skyscanner spokesperson said.

"Skyscanner is a travel search engine, so we don't have control of a traveller's booking.

"However, in the rare instances something does go wrong, we work quickly on behalf of travellers to ensure partners (in this case Flight Network) resolve the issue as soon as possible."

Advice for travellers

Ms McKenna's message for travellers is to "be careful" when booking airfares through third-party websites.

"The airport staff in Dublin told me they see this happening constantly," she said.

"(They say) it is always better to pay that little bit extra to go through the official airlines."

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An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) spokesperson said while the agency is unable to comment on individual cases, it is recommended travellers "do their due diligence prior to purchasing flights".

"Where consumers are unsure of an agent's or platform's reputation, they may wish to consider purchasing an airfare directly from the relevant airline," the spokesperson said.

The ACCC spokesperson also recommended travellers check their booking confirmation with both the agent or platform and the specific airline in advance of departure.

Álvaro Molina has had his run-ins with the burly bunch of neighbours with disreputable contacts who showed up about a decade ago along the river in front of his house in Colombia's Antioquia province. But he's learned to live with them and says he is worried about a government plan he fears could harm them.

People around Puerto Triunfo have grown accustomed to the herd of hippopotamuses descended from a few that were imported illegally from Africa in the 1980s by flamboyant drug lord Pablo Escobar, whose former ranch is nearby.

Mr Molina, 57, says he supports the hippos even though he is one of the few Colombians to have been attacked by one. He was out fishing one day when he felt a movement beneath his canoe that spilled him into the water.

READ MORE: Fisherman attacked by one of Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippos

"The female attacked me once — the first pair that arrived — because she had recently given birth," he said.

Within weeks, Colombia's government plans to sign a document declaring the hippos an exotic invasive species, according to Environment Minister Carlos Eduardo Correa. This means coming up with a plan for how to control their population, which has reached 130 and is projected hit 400 in eight years if nothing is done as they flourish in Colombia's rivers.

Correa said many strategies are being discussed but no decisions have been made. Local communities will be consulted about any plan to control the hippos' population, he added.

"They talk of castration, sterilisation, taking the life of some hippopotamuses," he said. "What is important is the scientific and technical rigour with which the decisions are made."

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Most people interviewed in Puerto Triunfo, some 200 kilometres of the capital, Bogota, say they can get along with the hippos and many oppose even sterilisation — let alone killing some.

"They make laws from a distance. We live with the hippopotamuses here and we have never thought of killing them," said Isabel Romero Jerez, a local conservationist. "The hippopotamuses aren't African now; they are Colombians."

Escobar's Hacienda Nápoles — and the hippos — have become a sort of local tourist attraction in the years since the kingpin was killed by police in 1993. When his ranch was abandoned the hippos survived and reproduced in local rivers and favorable climatic conditions. They began showing up around Puerto Triunfo a decade ago.

Scientists warn the hippos do not have a natural predator in Colombia and are a potential problem for biodiversity since their faeces change the composition of the rivers and could impact the habitat of manatees and capybaras.

An analysis by the Alexander Von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute said that climate change and "an increase in equatorial conditions, the ideal climate for the species" could increase the hippopotamus' dispersion across Colombia, potentially "overlapping with the geographic and ecological niches of native species, increasing the risk of possible competition for resources."

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Hippopotamuses can also cause damage to crops because they are mainly herbivores and seek food in large quantities at night.

While hippos are considered one of the most dangerous animals for humans in Africa, there have been only a few injuries recorded so far in these parts.

"I don't consider them a threat, but there are difficulties with them. In the municipality, we have had reports of three attacks on the civilian population," said Carmen Montaño, an official with Puerto Triunfo's Municipal Agricultural Technical Assistance Unit.

Locals say the hippos sometimes come out of the water and walk through the streets of the town. When that happens, traffic stops and people keep out of their way.

"The human animal is the one that invades their territory, that is why they feel threatened and attack," said Romero Jerez. "Human beings should be prudent, respectful and keep their distance."

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Scientists warn that hippos are territorial and weigh up to three tons.

Daniel Cadena, a biologist and dean of sciences at the Universidad de Los Andes, said they are aggressive animals and not as gentle as people imagine.

"There are estimates in Africa that hippos kill more people each year than lions, hyenas and crocodiles combined," he said.

When the document declaring them an invasive species in Colombia is signed, hippopotamuses will join species such as the giant African snail, coqui frog, black tilapia and lionfish. The declaration will allow the government to allocate resources to control the hippo population, one of the main obstacles.

There is currently an experimental program of immuno-castration with a drug donated by the United States. Surgically sterilising them requires sedating them, transporting them to a safe place and cutting through their thick skin.

"Hippopotamuses do not have what is called obvious sexual dimorphism, it is difficult to know if an animal is male … the genitals are internal," Mr Cadena said.

Any population control process promises to be costly and complex because it requires finding the hippos scattered along the mighty Magdalena River.

Modern-day espionage has evolved into a "cat-and-mouse" game between intelligence services and hostile agents fought against the backdrop of big data.

Agents continue to gather intelligence from three age-old sources: human interactions, signals and imagery surveillance. Or in layman's terms, conversations between people, sounds, and pictures.

But big data – extremely large information sets that are analysed by computer -has proven a game changer, one security expert told nine.com.au.

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John Blaxland, a professor of international security and intelligence studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, says the digital revolution is transforming spying.

"Big data and the digital footprint has made it harder for spies today," he said.

Today's well-resourced security and intelligence services across the globe can pinpoint an operative's online presence by using algorithms and other technological tools.

It's now easier for them to track a person's face, movement, watch, phone and devices.

"It's become a game of cat and mouse. Now the trick for spies is to hide their digital footprint," Dr Blaxland said.

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And the internet is proving to be the new espionage battleground for hostile actors and foreign operatives to target information and individuals.

For an example of this, Dr Blaxland pointed to the revelation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) this month about spies harnessing social media including some dating sites.

ASIO boss Mike Burgess in his annual threat assessment speech said the spy agency was also tracking suspicious approaches on dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge.

Dr Blaxland said the development was based on the espionage tactic of the 'honeypot' , or attractive individuals, to hook unwitting targets.

"It's an age-old human impulse … and can be a source of entrapment."

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But as governments rapidly improve their counter-espionage measures, spies are turning back to tradecraft last seen in the days of the Cold War.

"Now the trick is to hide your digital footprint," Dr Blaxland said.

So agents and their contacts are relearning old-school tricks.

One of them is the 'dead drop' -a secret location where materials can be left for another party to retrieve.

Another is the 'brush' past' involving a brief encounter between two people -often in a public place where something is passed between.

Once regarded as quaint Cold War hangovers, these and other non-digital tactics are finding new life, Dr Blaxland said.

"Agents are looking to skirt around big data … they want to circumvent the advanced algorithms."