Fred Pawle

Definitive: Scientists to Count Great Whites!

Are Great Whites in abundance or clinging to survival? New study plans to find out!

Are you as perplexed by the surge of Great Whites in the surf, and the arguments for and against solving the problem, as me?

Nets and dangling hooks are terrible things (they kill so many friendly animals), but they work. Compare and contrast attacks in Ballina with the Gold Coast. (Zero on the GC.)

The ocean is the shark’s environment, but it’s a pleasant place for humans to frolic in, too.

The Great White is endangered various scientific bodies say, but attacks are more relevant than ever before in human history.

For me, the argument has to boil down to this. If the Great White is endangered, y’can’t kill ’em. We live (and die) with it until stocks are replenished. Then we ice a few to restore the balance.

But if they’re not endangered.

Well.

Git the ropes out boys! 

So we gotta count ’em, right? Put the issue to bed once and for all.

A few days ago, the Australian government announced it had given its scientific body CSIRO the task of counting Whites in their east coast nurseries (Newcastle to Seal Rocks) and to use that data to estimate the population on the west coast.

Even though the Great White has been protected in Australia since 1999, experts concede they don’t know how many of the animals live in Australian waters.

I wonder, are we imagining ourselves sick about the Great White or is there a current oversupply of the animal?

The study will be complete by December.

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longtom
longtom
9 years ago

hard to keep track but at least 8 white sharks tagged in the last 2days between Foster and Ballina.
Including one where I was surfing solo yesterday.

I’d say over-supply.

?uzzled
?uzzled
9 years ago

Just tell the asians that white shark makes your dick hard. Problem solved.

wincy
wincy
9 years ago
Reply to  ?uzzled

hi I’m asian what makes your dick hard

Brutus
Brutus
9 years ago

So which ones do we cull, the mommas or the juveniles or both , and as GWS have been tracked coming from South Africa to the great barrier reef , should it be a global effort based on the Australian findings , what if there has been a decrease ?

Chas Smith
Chas Smith
9 years ago
Reply to  Brutus

I think, if a decrease, protect some more!

Brutus
Brutus
9 years ago
Reply to  Chas Smith

I like your thinking , but when will we have to legislate to protect the surfers ?

Lemon Next to the Pie
Lemon Next to the Pie
9 years ago
Reply to  Brutus

GWS tracked from South Africa? Are you sure you aren’t mixed up with the other expansion team who have been tracked from Shanghai to Alice Springs before heading home to the Gold Coast?

channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago

If we could just get a few of the Noahs to join Facebook / Instagram, then pretty soon we could pretty much know everything about them.

I wonder what a Great White’s ‘duckface’ looks like?

channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom
channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom

https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

Would you hit that?

Bin_Chook
Bin_Chook
9 years ago

The bleeding hearts will continue crying for the big, cuddly misunderstood fish even if they decide that they aren’t threatened.

humas tearss
humas tearss
9 years ago
Reply to  Bin_Chook

I’ve been thinking about this. The only way to make the count accurate is to make sure you don’t count them twice. The only way to do this is to keep the one you counted in the freezer, so it could actually be a good thing for surfers. Once they’ve completed the Great White census, the need to do one of bulls, and then Tigers.

Real Estate Schmuck
Real Estate Schmuck
9 years ago
Reply to  humas tearss

can we expect a tour notes, freezer shark edition?

Jocks
Jocks
9 years ago
Reply to  Bin_Chook

Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but they’re gonna count how many sharks there are at a nursery, where there should be the most sharks at any given moment, then average it all out. Am I missing the logic on that? Serious

wincy
wincy
9 years ago
Reply to  Bin_Chook

I don’t think that is true. The majority of people aren’t extremists.

Bin_Chook
Bin_Chook
9 years ago
Reply to  wincy

True, but the extremists are often the loudest voices.

Jimmy the Saint
Jimmy the Saint
9 years ago

Ah, what a fucking waste of money, they could just ask PK! Fucking science bullshit!

Mahdi
Mahdi
9 years ago

LOL


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