"Someone is going to die and that’s the unfortunate reality of it."
Ain’t no fun when your town becomes, of all a sudden, the “Isle of Jaws.” Esperance is a pretty, and let’s face it until recently pretty dull, town seven hundred clicks south-east of the Western Australian capital, Perth.
In April, the seventeen-year-old surfer Laeticia Brouwer was attacked and killed by a Great White shark in front of her family while surfing at an Esperance beach.
“It’s severely hectic down here and someone is going to die and that’s the unfortunate reality of it,” Esperance Ocean Safety and Support Group leader Mitch Capelli told Perth Now.
According to reports, Esperance fishermen are baiting and killing Great Whites because of a lack of government action. Fishermen hooked a feisty ten-footer that had been filmed biting and bumping boats on three different days.
“A lot of people have been calling me up and saying, ‘Let’s just go out and catch it because no one else is going to do it’. I’ve really been strongly advising against it because if we’re going to be taken seriously then we need to be … going about things the right way,” says Capelli.
The shark expert and filmmaker David Riggs told Perth Now that Esperance “is the latest White shark hotspot (to be) recognised on the planet. Before we had dropped anchor we had six 15-foot Great Whites pushing our boat around. It’s full-on.”
The Great White is a protected species, of course. And the law’s gonna come down on anyone who rolls back to the dock with a dead White on the deck.
So what sorta heat y’gonna get if you ice a White?
First offence. Ten gees.
Sean , but my comment , that you commented on , was in relation to the Siberian tigers , which you have now commented on, out of commenting on my comments , can you really read , or is Kelly really right that could the biggest Kook he has ever encountered , because of your commential commenting on comments?
don’t drink and its morning where I am!
just so you know 3 years ago I started saying there seems to be shark attacks where there are buried whale carcass’s from WA , to Nth Coast , $20K to bury them on the beach ,$200 K to cut em up and haul them away , and finally the Govt has decided to test this theory out and see if there is any factual basis for removing whale carcass’s the beaches , especially the ones that are used for human ocean activity!
oh no False News , any relation to your Greatest President , Fake News?
Yes you are right , we will just destroy our environment , so lets not talk about future generations !
was that only white gays?
you can call death a horrible tragedy , some just call it part of life!
juvenile sharks don’t attack seals as their jaws are still not fully developed so they hunt stingrays etc , until they can chew on a seal!
ha don’t come to BG for valid points , but, making an analogy with Siberian Tigers wandering into your house with GW’s ..yeah that’s a bit stale and waning!
Take a canoe then
Still banned mate I can’t comment there
So what are you saying , because we are supposedly superior , even though we seem to be shitting in our own nest and fucking up our environment for our kids and family that we love , that we should look down on any species that is not as great as us?
Sharks have been around for millions of years , they will probably outlive the human race , as we seem to be indirectly getting ready to cull humans!
when has there ever been a helicopter or boat that has arrived just after an attack?
So it’s a matter of what and why you are culling?
Far from it, I kill it and skin it when I can…you? IGA?
ah I would not call BG a thinking mans website /Forum , more skeptics, nothing is sacred , bogan , frivolous , noxious , toxic and ya better have thick skin just to survive the comments section.
They are having no problems catching whites on smart drumlines here , not sure what they are baiting the hooks with.
They’re baiting the smart lines on the north coast with Mullet
Yep, not an emotional argument in the slightest.
There isn’t any real concrete science on Whites yet. That’s only just gotten started last few years. Any statement to the contrary is plain wrong
Who’s been studying Whites for decades and where? Research based on what extactly?
yeah but seals are cute , and therefore not cullable!
damn you are making nearly too much sense for the average BG moron , but it sounds like we have a slow culling process in place as we poison our oceans and land , or is that subjective knowledge?
I think we need a war somewhere , say like NK so we don’t have to think or worry about silly little details eg there’s a really slight chance I might interact with a GWS , so cull them so I won’t be frightened when I go in the ocean!
Don’t go get all emotional. No data science, research blah blah Are you high? War?!
emotional , only as I am laughing at the usual cull experts , who , yes you are right , who have no data science/research blah blah , just a couple of antidotes from fishermen and surfers .
Not high just looking for a good distraction , and a way of culling too many humans, as I am more scared of humans than sharks!
What’s the science?
gee don’t you watch Shark week?
Emotional, please provide data
please provide data about why there is a need to cull GWS’s?
Talking.To.Brick.Wall.
Take a trip to Nth NSW and talk to locals
Bye
So that’s your science a couple of hysterical surfers on the NSW coast?
So is that your scientific data and the reason to cull GWS’s?
how about more than 10 whales being buried on the beaches in NSW in the last few years…how does that eneter into your scientific approach to working out why there have been a lot of sharks around the Nth Coast?
You know, you’ve convinced me with your observational fact backed theory Brutus
Hell, what do Ballina and Lennox and Byron generations of surfers know? Makes no sense. What do generations of fisherman know? Compared to …. you?
No Jock , this about you being unable to post anything that resembles a fact , except antidotal evidence from the last 5o years , I stated a fact that humans are not on the menu of GWS;s , so there’s a simple fact , which means what are you scared of?
It’s a fact humans are not on the … yes, you’re right Brutus. One day I hope to be as enlightened and spritual as yourself, and accept that I take a risk when I surf. Please, teach me more oh yoda
listen Jocks , I understand your fear , but we are not all as adverse to taking risks as you.
Please don’t leave home , as you might be run over by a car , hit by lightning , bashed by your next door neighbour , raped by rainbow warrior, so there’s your lesson, don’t leave home as it’s too risky!
Do you believe you’re the only person who accepts that risk? You carry on like you’re the only person accepting that. Duh
Not at all , but when I hear people carrying on about the threat that GWS’s pose to surfers,and call for culling , there is no evidence to show this will be affective , and is just an emotional knee jerk response !
So what’s the science to cull them,emotion?
Where’s the science, either way? When they protected them, and since?
The science says the same conditions produce the same results over and over again unless a disruptive force is delivered upon those conditions. Then you can with scientific certainty have an expectation of a different result.
so whats the different result you are looking for or do you just roll the dice and see what happens?
Actually. thats a brilliant idea. A c and r fishery for whites.
The problem here in Ballina is juvenile/sub-adult whites. I bet if they were caught and released a few times they would become very wary of humans…probably like makos.
Thoughts?
Are they tagging and releasing juveniles Ballina? Any real data?
Yeah, they are ….there’s a ton of data now. It’s just not collated into any real meaningful whole.
But the actual data backs up the anecdotal evidence from local fishermen, and then surfers : that white sharks are increasingly in abundance, with some seasonal variation but here all year around. Mostly juvenile/sub-adult sharks, which strongly supports an hypothesis of rebounding populations here on the East Coast.
I think there’s several reasons why increased activity / attacks. But. It takes GWS to reach juvenile about 15 years. When was GWS declared a protected species?
1999.
There might be some elasticity about growth rates. Highly likely some of the Ballina juveniles in the 2-2.5m range are less than 15 years old.
is that whale still buried on the beach at Ballina , you know the one that washed up there on the beach before Tadashi was killed?
That one was at the top end of 7 mile beach, probably close to 10k from where Tadashi was attacked at Shelley.
So the sharks that followed the carcass in , would not have have stayed in the area?
Hard to say to what extent a buried whale will attract and keep sharks in an area and how far that area extends.
Research being carried out at Southern Cross uni now ….so I’m prepared to wait and see what that says.
Still, apart from the buried whale theory smart drumlines have been catching plenty of white sharks in Evans Head….that would be more than 30 k’s at least from that whale at 7 mile. Big burley trail.
I think buried whales might be one factor, but there is still the other observable factor, now quantified to an extent by tagging and listening stations of an abundance of juvenile/sub-adult white sharks.
spoke to Dave Ms Cauley the other day about the shark problem over at Lefties etc , and he was blown away about the whale that was buried at umbies just before all the attacks started in the Gracetown area , so there seems to be a correlation between increasing whale carcass’s and GWS’s as up until the Ballina pre-Tadashi death , there were 13 whales buried along NSW beaches over a 3 year period , hopefully we will have a lot more scientific evidence on why in the coming years.
It’s amazing when you see that now there seems to be a lot of whites in Esperence , and none at Neptune Island?
Yep there’s definitely observed correlations nationally with the buried whale on beach and GW presence.
Its amazing to see how long its taken for the Govt’s to actually try and find out if there is connection to buried whales and attacks.
Makes you really wonder about “duty of care,” and if it is proven , what would be the legal ramifications ??
Who has the data? be great to arrange some project support to get the data collated and fast tracked into something useful.
DPI and I assume CSIRO
Thanks, I’ll try DPI
I think the KKK could be put to work to save the whites , and would become very wary of any other animal life as the KKK will back up their beliefs!
You can’t be serious?!? If someone disagrees with you, they must have espoused the KKK? I find you bland brutus.
ah yes , so serious , I actually support the KKK , as they want to cull all the blackfellas who are scourge upon the divine rights of the White!
Departing. Factual. Debate. Bye Bye
where are your facts?
Explain your theory. Based on known scientific facts. Thanks
my theory is if you don’t have any facts , go out and find them so you can make an educated decision , so far the GWS do not feed on humans , so what’s the problem?
Circular argument. I ask you for facts. You don’t have any. You ask me for facts.
Nighty night
Fact sharks don’t feed on Humans , so what’s the problem?
you have an opinion so what is it and what facts is it based on?
Sharks don’t feed on humans?
Observation?
this is not observation but a fact!
Mmmm emotional
In WA all we want to do is what nsw and Qld can do and that is catch about 6-800 sharks per year to protect humans at key tourism and population areas.
To put this in context Globally every year 100 000 000 sharks are caught using mega fishing factories.
The volume of noise we are getting from keyboard environmentalists on this subject is disproportionate, misdirected and lazy because they are not addressing the bigger problem of global over fishing. Australia and Western Australia have some of the best and most sustainable fish populations in the world and it is not unreasonable for humans to expect protection from the excellent job government has done in replenishing the fish/shark population.
No “We” don’t, Some definitely do granted, however the majority off Western Australians are opposed to fatal management of Sharks.
As for surfers on the South Coast of WA, its probably 70/30 in favor of Non Fatal approach, so its definitely a community division which is understandable. But to say “WE” want to do what Qld etc….. inst the majority by a long shot
You are underestimating the we, where there has been communities directly afefected by a fatal attack the we is a clear majority and they are feeling helpless in trying to initiate change that will sustain sharks and minimise fatal attacks to 1/20 years.
If more children are killed this helplessness and frustration will turn to action such as in reunion island where they rushed the parliament and in certain communities more uncontrolled shark fishing. Instead of taking the easy high ground and just saying no to shark fishing let’s find compromises such as smart drumlins and sustainable quotas so the shark fishing is managed and measured.
In Australia we control the population of horses,kangaroos, rabbits,crocs and no one cares. We kill dogs as soon as they attack a human. We fish a million different species every year and no one cares. If managed correctly shark fishing really isn’t as big a deal people are making out.
The pro cull movement never been represented as a majority in any poll that has been published. Drumlines failed in WA and the issues of species we have managed you mention are largely feral populations not native animals on their natural environment. If there’s sustainable management options I’m all for it but you need the baseline data first to determine that….. And with your drumlines what are the KPI’s to let you know when it’s safe to go back in the water? So clearly its not as simple as you’d like it to be. Unfortunately more people will die in the ocean and that’s not good but thousands more die on our roads and don’t hear anyone whining about that and that’s an environment that’s ours and we have full control of. Get the data and determine what’s sustainable is the only way forward
To reiterate Fishing shark in wa to protect humans is not the problem. Unregulated global shark fishing is the problem
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