As the attacks, sightings and statistics start to add up, it’s pretty hard not to get caught up in the debate surrounding how we, the human, should deal with the animal, sharks.
The primal instinct, buried deep down within us all, points to only one reaction, shoot to kill.
That of course was the order given for the 3-4m white pointer thought to have attacked body boarder, Matt Lee, at Lighthouse Beach near Ballina on Thursday.
But…anyone get a good description of that thing?
Was it the same one seen at Lennox on Friday, the one creeping up on the surfers at Tallows on Saturday or one of the three filmed gorging on a whale carcass off Coffs Harbour?
Jesus, just how many are there? But why Byron, and why now?
“White sharks use certain depth contours of the continental shelf as a migratory corridor along the east coast of Australia,” says large shark research scientist, Doctor Jonathon Werry of the Gold Coast based Ocean and Research Centre.
“Beaches that are closer to this corridor are more likely to have white sharks visit them. For example; Ballina. The orientation of the beach to the rest of the coastline can also influence the likelihood of white sharks visiting.”
In a nutshell, Byron juts out from the coast at an odd angle thus bringing it closer to the continental shelf, a bit like, holy smokes…Margaret River!
Coincidence? Maybe. But wait…there’s more.
“We have more people using the water than in the past, hence more chance of human interaction,’’ continues Dr Werry.
Good God, it can’t be that simple can it? As the population of both wave rich regions increases so to will the number of “interactions”.
Indeed, concludes Dr Werry, before adding; ‘We are likely to see further white shark-human interactions in the future.”
And the long held theory that it’s classification as a protected species has allowed numbers of whites to escalate to plague proportions?
“There is more evidence to suggest we have declines in large shark populations in general, rather than an increase,” says Dr Werry.
“White sharks are a rare species though. They are large, long-lived and produce few offspring. In Australian waters they were frequently targeted for sport fishing, prior to the 1990’s. They’ve had 20 odd years of protection, hence it is logical that we should expect some increase in their population by now, although there is insufficient data to indicate a white shark population increase.”
Yeah, but still. A young man is bitten while surfing and it’s time to round up a posse and head out to sea, guns blazing.
Think that’s the right thing to do?
Let’s look at the approach taken by the West Australian government following the horrendous run of attacks a couple years ago.
Following the death of Chris Boyd at Umbis in November 2013, the Barnett Government swiftly implemented its Shark Mitigation Program and boy, didn’t that get the party started.
Massive rallies were held opposing the program and from memory even UK funny man Ricky Gervais jumped on board.
Surfing WA and a large chunk of the surfing community, however, threw its support behind it.
At first glance, the approach seemed archaic; oversized hooks baited with whale blubber were thrown off the starboard side with hopes of catching “any great white, bull or tiger shark longer than three meters” in a bid to reduce the risk of further attacks.
The net result? 64 tigers and four short-fin makos were either killed upon catch or died while caught on baited hooks. One bull shark and 99 tiger sharks were also caught and released.
Missing from the stats of course was Ol’ Whitey.
Then images of dead tiger sharks being gaffed and shot at point blank range started to emerge and the tide of public opinion started to waver just a little.
The government then took a more hands on approach and issued standing orders for any shark thought to be creating a public nuisance to be plucked out of the ocean poste haste.
That worked; sorta. Two massive whites were caught just hours after the attack on Sean Pollard near Esperance in October 2014.
The dead beasts were thrown onto a hire trailer and carted off to Perth for autopsy, only to find there was nothing to indicate they’d been involved.
It then implemented a paranoia inducing Twitter feed where it was (and still is) possible to be notified every time a tagged shark cruises past one of the matching beacons.
The irony is, there are no such beacons off the coast of Margaret River. The last one is stationed around the corner from Yallingup, which is of little comfort once that 6m submarine last seen headed south disappears off the radar.
Oddly enough, the whole shebang reached a crescendo just a couple weeks ago, long after the great white terror seemed to have disappeared from the vernacular.
The government triumphantly released findings from two and half years of research showing a bulky, electrode emitting leg rope might hold the answer, well at least most of the time, assuming you’re wearing it.
So throwing that all in the mix, the end result of the West Australian government’s multi million dollar program was two dead white pointers, a Twitter feed and news an electrode emitting leg rope might, or might not, work.
Scientists worldwide have openly admitted they’re none the wiser when it comes to white pointers, so in reality, what chance do we really have?
1155 people died while driving on Australian roads last year. By shark? Worldwide…maybe not even double digits.
Shoot to kill?
