Fresh attack as protesters rail against shark
nets…
Do you remember, and you should because it wasn’t that
long ago, when shark attacks were big news? Even a little
snap on the leg’d run on the front page of the daily newspapers,
the victim a sudden celebrity. A guy where I live in Sydney had a
white eat his hand and he wrote a book about it.
Now? Now?
If you live on that little stretch of coast from Ballina to
Byron Bay, once known as the birthplace of soul surfing in
Australia but now better known as the great white capital of the
world, a reporter would hardly get his pen and notebook out unless
it’s a fatality, or an amputation.
And, so, when a surfer got hit at Suffolk Park, on the southside
of Cape Byron, a few hours ago, but was only bitten on the thigh…
who cares?
Of course, there’s the issue of shark nets, an obvious solution
to the absurd spike in attacks. In which case, the latest hit
deserves note. Let’s examine.
From The
Australian.
Veteran surfers in northern NSW are “really shaken up” after
another shark attack in their region this morning.
A surfer sitting with a group of about 15 others 200m from
shore at Broken Head, south of Byron Bay, was bitten on the
thigh.
He suffered puncture wounds and was able to get to shore and
take himself to hospital.
The shark wrapped its mouth around his leg and the tail of
his surfboard. As has been the case with several other recent
attacks, it appears the fin of the man’s surfboard has discouraged
the shark from biting harder, and swimming away.
“When he got hit, he started screaming to the others,
‘Shark!’,” said Byron Bay Boardriders president Neil Cameron, who
had come in from a surf and was in the car park when the attack
occurred.
He said the group of surfers who came in with the attack
victim were “really shaken up”. He added that all the surfers in
the region were tired of waiting for the government to
act.
Belinda Holland, a witness, said she saw his board go
“flying” in the attack.
“I’m pretty sure his board went flying into the air and he
got … a chunk out of his leg and side. There was a lot of blood,”
she told the Today show.
Robert Fenech, who was surfing at Broken Head this morning
as well, said he was about 100m from where the man was attacked
about 7.30am.
Broken Head,
just south of Byron Bay, where the shark attack
occurred.
“There hadn’t been any waves for two weeks,” he said. “The
internet says there’s surf, so we all went out there. It was
packed. I go out there all the time.
“Everyone’s pretty vulnerable. It’s pretty close to home.
There are so many girls and young guys,” he said. “We knew there
were sharks there, but it’s the first time someone’s been snapped
for a while.”
Mr Cameron told The Australian this morning that
the local authorities now had two options. “One, they install nets
and drumlines, like we’ve been saying they should; or, two, the
council puts up signs saying ‘Do not enter the water’. That’s what
it’s come down to. This is about protecting people who want to use
the water at a major tourist destination.”
He said today’s attack was the “final nail in the
coffin”.
He said that in the past, whenever there was an attack in
the region, everybody knew there would not be another one for six
or seven years. “But now, the next one could be this
afternoon.”
He attributed the problem to local green politicians. “There
is an extremely big and strong green factor in Byron Bay. There’s
been a strong push by the average punter and the media to stop nets
being put in.
“They have so-called experts, but they keep coming up with
irrelevant facts. These experts don’t know as much as surfers and
fishermen.
Ironically, if irony works any more, “hundreds” attended a
protest against the installation of shark nets in Ballina
yesterday.
“People want to see something that’s sustainable, that will
keep ocean users safer, that’s not going to decimate our wildlife,”
said Ballina Greens MP Tamara Smith.
Really?
The always fabulous Nick Carroll debunks
the hysteria about shark nets
here.