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.
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.
“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.
That’s it! I’m becoming a researcher. Specifically a shark researcher. Anyone can do it. Funding, funding, fuuunnding to surf in exotic places. Sure, I’ll take notes and slap down some quick facts. Surf. Repeat. Give me a year, then one of you fine folks can do the same to prove me wrong. Smiles all around!
Question: How many GWs have to be tagged before we have enough research data? Whats the magic number?
We’ve tagged 60+ so far. When are we going to NOT let a few of the big ones go?
If a kid gets taken by a shark with a tag on its fin, watch this shit blow up!
A researcher would say, “look we can track the remains of your child up and down the coast”.
There is no such thing as how many. That’s the beauty of research, it perpetuates more research. I’m doing my best to sound professional here…
yeah, could well be, but I think that wide, chopped square is a Kidman thing.
Blame the fucking monkey faced chinese trawlers off the coast. Actually, blame all the trawlers and fuck industrial fishing and pollution. If surfing in peace means starting a war with China so they stop fishing to feed their overpopulated dog eaters of a country, then fucking do it. I’ll push my french government to join forces with Australia. Suck it China.
is there an abundance of chinese trawlers just lurking off the byron/ballina coastline? cause no cunts getting bitten anywhere else on the coast as much as that stretch of coast. what about the marine park in the area? you think that might have any thing to do with it?
Pete (are you the same Pete?) Chinese trawlers do not fish in Australian territorial waters. Australian fisheries are fished exclusively by accredited Australia-based fishing operations. And if you are concerned about marine ecosystems, bear in mind that more bycatch (96 tonnes) is reported by the relatively small NSW prawn trawling industry than the entire catch in all Australian shark protection programs. Oh and commercial shark fishing operations in Australian waters take about 1400 tonnes of shark every year. Meshing is not even a drop in that bucket.
The very same one. I am astonished to learn that shark is fished commercially in Australia. Thank you for your response anyway. Cheers Nick
Ballina: Bogans with tans.
Byron Bay: Bogans with tans and beards.
Lennox?
Bogans with tans and camcorders pointed at their kids who they’re convinced are going to be the next big thing in pro surfing.
How’d I go?
not that wide of the mark, for some.
Pretty good Hunk. I was there a month or two back and saw a large supporting crew in shitty weather watching their progeny flail about in the shark-baitiest of conditions. Although, to be fair, that behaviour does describe any of the beaches I currently frequent…
Yeah this just in: the NSW Govt is pushing legislation this week to allow shark meshing trials in the Ballina area. They’re also intending on setting an extra 85 “smart” drum lines along the coastline once the drum lines arrive (they’re on order from a supplier overseas).
that was a very good article you wrote about it in CW.
thanks. There’s a lot of information I couldn’t include in the piece for lack of space. But I’m struggling to grasp how anyone could think meshing doesn’t work to reduce or eliminate contact between humans and sharks – and thus do the same with attacks. And when you look for real at the by catch figures, you wonder even more why people keep talking about the massacre of the ecosystem. It’s just not true.
It is just funny how you can go 55 km north from Byron to Coolie and then nothing attack wise!!! So nets have to work into QLD.
So whilst we know you can swim around under a net maybe just is that the physical barrier is enough to alter the swimming pattern to repel them – I keep thinking like a zoo animal tracing that worn path maybe they swim the same pathways and the fact that net is there may alter that pathway enough.
Good article
So Nick, your solution as an influent author is to eviscerate – or maybe help me choose another term – the sharks along with other marine animals ( let’s be honest, nets are not exclusive) from the australian surf spots?
No Pete. My interest with this article was in what actually occurs with shark protection meshing. I knew the NSW govt had decided to mesh some of the Ballina coast and I thought it was a subject worth researching in some depth given the many concerns of people in the area – like it would be worth trying to figure out what they were in for. I honestly expected to find evidence of a kind of wildlife slaughterhouse, but 80 years of closely detailed data from the meshing programs in NSW and Queensland showed something entirely different. I am not going to go through it again here – you can read about it in the article and look at some of the information I dug up in the associated links. But it’s very clear from the data that the bycatch in meshing is nowhere near a threat to coastal ecosystems, and the shark catch itself declines dramatically over time. It’s also very clear when you match the timing of meshing against the incidence of shark attack, that it works to prevent such attacks, probably by preventing humans and big sharks from being in the same place at the same time. This has been the case everywhere meshing has been employed, both along Australian coasts and in places overseas such as NZ and Sth Africa. I have a great deal of empathy for the people in and around Ballina who have undergone the trauma of these recent attacks, and being a resident of Sydney who has surfed all my life under the protection of meshing, I feel it’d be the height of hypocrisy for me to dismiss their concerns – and their anger at anyone who treats those concerns with cheeseball suggestions about “well just don’t surf” or whatever. Like – what do such people think is going on here? But beyond that, there’s the evidence about meshing, its effects and its results. I think denying this is on a par with global warming denialism – and demonstrates that the human ability to ignore the evidence is not restricted to the Western political right wing.
Right wing? Are you sure they are the only ones? I’d say it’s both lefties and rights. Agenda is always above facts. Good article though, liked it.
Thanks for your reply and your convincing arguments. It’s a honor.
You say “it’s very clear from the data that the bycatch in meshing is nowhere near a threat to coastal ecosystems” but then say “,and the shark catch itself declines dramatically over time”.
Does this mean that there is or isn’t a change in the coastal ecosystem? Or that you have evidence that the change that occurs is not a threat? This is a legit question because I would assume that by saying there is a decline in the shark catch that either the sharks die or they change their behaviour. Both are pretty obviously a threat to the ecosystem. Ecosystems are very sensitive and any man-made change is potentially a big threat. Disregarding this is in large part why our planet is in the state it’s in right now.
Time to add Sharks with Religion and Politics as things NOT to discuss at a dinner party.
Cant believe how hypocritical people are when we say we may kill a few sharks. Would you sacrifice your wife or kid for a sharks life if you were in that situation?
Would you just watch happily while they get munched, not asking for help, just saying, oh well this is the way of the nature.
The old ” you know the dangers when you go in the water ” crap is just that.
Were asking the government to put in some nets to protect humans, the evidence shows it works. SIMPLE.
If the council builds a bike path around a nice headland, but dont put a handrail on it, you shouldnt whinge if ya kid goes off the edge and dies. You knew the danger, you shouldnt of went on the bike path! No, we would whinge and want to sue the council for not putting in a handrail or fence in front of the edge. We’d be up in arms, how could they not think of that and protect us from the dangerous natural environment when we do our recreational activity of walking or cycling.
If brown snakes kept slithering into a certain soccer oval and killed a few kids, they then kept being seen on oval daily. A protective barrier would be put up that day. But brown snakes are protected, and what about if that barrier catches a possum or something.else we have noticed runs onto that field. But thats land and mans territory so they should know not to go there!
Ive said it before, the minute a small kid gets taken whole, the minute these green protesters will be absolutely silent on the matter. To scared to go down to the beach and protest then.
Somebody please invent a sarcasm font!
Hungry Hungry Hypocrites, the game the greens play better than anyone else.
there was almost a fist fight in the carpark at the Ox just before over it….things are heating up
Yeah ive seen it too. Its the new Religion debate.
Atheist vs Catholic.
We walk past a homeless person, but almost come to blows about protecting a shark and keeping them safe in their home!!
Homeless people arent cool like shark protests for the facebook/ selfie post though, so i understand.
Hey LT – I had a paddle at the Ox yesterday. There was 27 people out when I got there and 19 when I came in, all enjoying some nice chubby walls. What might those numbers have been a few years ago on a Tuesday lunchtime outside of school holidays?
We’re having human sacrifices now? Awesome.
You have kids, you want a good future for them but haven’t taken the time to understand the environmental crisis facing the earth. That right there is the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy. I don’t know how old you are but speak with any reasonable science literate environmentalist and the future is pretty bleak for our kids. In their lifetime they will probably be faced with much worse worries than the minuscule threat of shark attack. But don’t worry about it. You and I will be dead by then so who gives a fuck? My kids are selfish anyway so fuck them.
“Environmental crisis”..geez do you work for A Current Affair by any chance..How many fibreglass surfboards do you own Surf Hunk?
There not really good at breaking down in the environment.
Agree our kids will face much worse worries than shark attacks, but we’re only addressing shark attacks in this article and the scientific fact that an east coast beach with a net has less attacks than one without.
If you want to start blaming people for the eco systems problems, first stop off at your grand parents house, second your parents place.
Well here’s what you can tell from the catch in the meshing: that by and large for the last half century, correcting for changes in the program (added meshing, installation of warning devices etc), it’s been pretty much stable. In the meantime there’s been heaps of other things occur. Just in the Sydney region alone in the same period we’ve seen a big buildup in raw and partially treated sewage being dumped directly into the inshore coastal zone, then in the early 1990s a sudden change to that as a result of offshore ocean outfalls being activated; now most of that stuff is released on the sea bed several kilometres offshore. Also in the same period, there’s been a massive bounce-back in the humpback whale migratory population, which comes past Sydney twice a year (once on the way north, and again heading south); the migration tends to veer out to sea a bit along much of the northern beaches but the whales come in pretty close at times, fortunately rarely encountering the meshing. Both these things are really significant changes to the coastal ecosystem. In the same period we’ve added some 2 million people to the population of Sydney, with all that entails in terms of environmental impact.
Of course the meshing is having an effect on the coastal ecosystem – if it wasn’t having an effect, it wouldn’t be working to keep humans and sharks apart. My point is that on the basis of what we know of the catch and by catch, it doesn’t constitute a threat of any significance, and it pales, like literally vanishes, in comparison to all the other stuff that’s going on along and off the coast, good or bad. What it DOES appear to do is stop people being attacked and killed by large sharks. You may not like the balance, but it’s one that’s been struck for a long time now, and very effectively.
That was a very roundabout way of saying that it does alter the ecosystem but it doesn’t matter because the impact is not as bad as all these other things and our recreation is more important. I’m dumbfounded that someone like yourself still uses such a puerile way to justify something. That’s the logic I expect from retarded facebook arguments about refugees between my racist uncle and my drug fucked ex hippie Dad. Not Nick Carroll. I don’t give a flying fuck how many justifications people keep coming up with to support this. It’s the same shit from humans that’s gotten us into this mess. We (yes it’s all of us humans. No one gets to say it was another generation or some other horseshit excuse) badly messed with the ecosystem to start with, then we started surfing in large numbers and now that we’ve actually made some progress and sea life numbers are coming back we only like some parts of it like whales and turtles but not sharks so we have to fuck with it again. Is anyone else as absolutely mindblown about this shit as me? Makes me feel like one of those religious wackjobs waving “end of the world is nigh” signs in the street when I talk about how fucked the world is and how much of a backflip we need to take with our attitude. As surfers this particular issue gives us a chance to show the world we’re serious about our part of the equation but we’re just getting less credibility as we go. I’m becoming more embarrassed to be a surfer each year. Just a bunch of selfish and entitled morons.
I can’t help you with any of that mate. All the best.
That was clear before I hit the keyboard but we can now add condescending to the list of ways Nick Carroll is just like all the other self-important old white men of the world.
Whats Nicks age or skin colour got to do with it. You wrote we cant blame any generation. Some of your racist uncle coming through there!
If you stop surfing though cause you dont want to be a moron, how are you gonna dispose of all those enviromentally sustainable FIBREGLASS surfboards you been happily buying for years?
Nick, see attached,
George Greenough penned a letter on subject in yesterdays local paper.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
… yummy yellow spray. Just sayin’…
Nice 8 channel bottom. Think that’s a Kidman shape.
I think you’ll find there were two shapers involved. I’m not sure about the other, but G. White was involved.