The fog of war: Major newspaper runs “exclusive” story based on flawed study claiming Great Whites have “little interest in mammals” two days after fatal hit on surfer

"Australian researchers found little evidence of marine mammals in the stomachs of the 40 mostly juvenile great whites they examined."

On Sunday morning just a little before eleven, Gold Coast surfer Rob Pedretti was hit by a Great White shark, a ten or twelve footer, according to an expert in these things. 

A pal, Frank, and another Gold Coast surfer, Mark, tried to fight the shark as it circled the trio, occasionally charging, leaving dings in Mark’s board, following ‘em to the beach where Pedretti died. 

No bite-and-release mistake here.

Two days later, The Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper that is to the left what The Australian is to the right, and therefore virulently anti-netting, culling etc, ran a chirpy sorta piece bannered “Shark Debate” and with “environment” and “conservation” built into the URL headlined, “Study shows surprising diet of sharks with little interest in mammals.”

Great white sharks are picky eaters, altering their diet to meet changing needs as they grow. Mammals are of little interest until the animals mature and bites on humans are likely to be mistakes.

Research published on Monday in the Frontiers in Marine Science journal by Australian researchers found little evidence of marine mammals in the stomachs of the 40 mostly juvenile great whites they examined.

Richard Grainger, a PhD researcher at the University of Sydney and lead author of the paper, told the Herald, “understanding what sharks were likely to eat and where could help the public minimise the small chance of an interaction with humans. People should also avoid dawn, dusk and other times when the water may be murky, such as after rain.”

Here’s the flaw in the study.

Studying “mostly” juvies ain’t gonna help anyone when it comes to minimising “the small chance of an interaction with humans.”

Dolphins and whales don’t get hit by juvies only by bigger, older sharks, although the paper concedes, “The hunting of bigger prey, including other sharks and marine mammals such as dolphin, is not likely to happen until the sharks reach about 2.2 meters in length.”

(No one told this juvie White. Last year, surfer Sam Edwardes was put in an induced coma after he had a “football sized” chunk taken out of his leg in Byron Bay twenty years after losing his pal to a Great White twenty years earlier in South Australia.)

As for that ol furphy about avoiding dawnies etc, as Longtom wrote yesterday, 

We’ve learnt the published guidelines on avoiding White shark attacks are straight up BS. They like clear water, sunshine, small surf. The mistaken identity theory was the first casualty. White sharks, we learnt, are curious to aggressive. What makes a looker, into a circler, into a bumper then a biter we don’t know.

In a 2012 TED x talk, Grainger’s co-author of the paper, Vic Peddemors, from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, joked that the recent fatalities of surfers in Western Australia had constituted a “bumper season”.

The central question remains, I think.

Are Great Whites endangered?

Yes?

Keep ’em protected.

No?

Throw out a net here and there.