Sixteen Great Whites tagged on the drums between Evans and Lennox over three days.
We’re still distressed about young Mani’s premature demise, two weeks later, but we’re not shocked.
That kind of news puts a chill in your heart, like when I hear the westpac chopper fly past. You hope it’s not someone you know, but if it ain’t, it’s always someone who knows someone.
After reading the below-the-line comments on both my article and Dan Dobs’, as well as Dan Webber’s latest contribution my writerly soul, my surfer soul is rejoicing. They were magnificent, encompassed all points on the spectrum.
Truly, surfers, as the main targets of increasing shark attacks in Australia and globally have got control of the narrative now. Taken it back from the peckerheads and sheepish jackasses of the BBC, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The Australian, The Wall Street Journal, Hollywood etc etc.
I asked two questions in the last article.
One, had we reached a tipping point with the latest attack and two, did the architects of the White shark recovery in (eastern) Australian waters have an ethical obligation to consider the human cost of that decision.
Smart people said no to the first question below the line and, now that the emotion has worn off, I think they are correct, even though the history of human/shark relations in Australia is replete with tipping points.
As to the second question, well no-one really had a swing at it.
I think therefore we should rephrase it by looking at some of the orthodox thinking which surrounds the vexed shark issue in light of the science and take an axe to some of the current shibboleths if recent data dictates it.
The currently accepted reason for the increasing rate of attacks in Australia (and worldwide) is the increasing number of surfers in the water. Not the sole reason but the one that does most of the heavy lifting. It was framed eloquently as a question of increasing surfer hours by one commenter.
If that were true, you would expect places of high surfer numbers to suffer more attacks. Attack facts do not support that theory. Attacks happen in areas of small surfer numbers. Mani was attacked in a small group, as was Rob Pedretti, as was Tadashi, and Matt Lee, and Craig Ison and Lee Johnson and Cooper Allan and Paul Wilcox and Sam Edwardes etc etc.
Posit two days on the Ballina coast as a thought experiment.
One is a pumping day with a very high number of surfer-hours. The other a delicate babyfood day with a low number of surfer hours.
Which has the highest risk of attack?
The data conclusively supports the theory the low surfer hours day is the more dangerous. Crowds, paradoxically, decrease the chances of attack.
Small numbers are the most dangerous days/situations.
Second shibboleth. You go in the water, you accept the risk. Very eloquently stated by Maurice Cole.
Yes, and very true.
What is forgotten is how quickly and by how much the risk has changed in this area.
Prior to September 2014’s fatal attack by white shark on swimmer Paul Wilcox the area was not known for White sharks. The last fatal attack was by bull shark on Pete Edmonds at North Wall in 2008. Prior to that, honeymooner John Ford was bitten in half in Byron Bay when he put himself between a six-metre white and his beloved in 1993.
Years separated attacks.
That all changed in 2015.
We went from isolated incidents to a hot spot where attacks and incidents happened on the reg. The actual risk is very different now.
Why?
Theories that blame increasing surfer numbers don’t make sense, as we have discussed. You could run the line that our surfer consciousness is too aggro and is an affront to the peaceable White shark as advocated by Anna Breytenbach.
But, if that seems loopy, what you are left with is an increasing number of Whites, mostly juiced-up teens and sub-adults that seem to have a kink for games of chicken with surfer legs, if you’ll pardon the anthropomorphism.
The surfer theory, as presented by George Greenough, is the White shark is in bounceback mode and the juvies and sub-adults are back to claim territory ceded from days when they were openly fished and the solution to a White shark hanging around was a chain and a 20/0 hook.
The numbers from the smart drum line program support that.
The fishing over the last week has been very good. Down at the Ballina marina in the grungy post-industrial West Ballina area I waited in the rain for the shark contractor to come in. They’d tagged four that day. One had interrupted my go-out at small fun Lennox Point.
Sixteen Great Whites tagged on the drums between Evans and Lennox over three days.
The shark contractor brought up the third shibboleth.
People think the ocean is over-fished but it’s teeming with life here, he told me. The ocean is being raped and pillaged, but it’s in rude good health on the North Coast.
Those two statements seem incompatible, but they are both true. Blue sharks and other oceanic species are being slaughtered for shark fins but White sharks are regionally/seasonally abundant and largely immune to fishing pressure.
Both those things are also true.
Latest science on the food stocks for White sharks in Aus, salmon, seals and whales all point to abundant food sources.
Dolphins make up prey for White sharks, they seem scarcer since the Whites showed up, but that is anecdotal.
The last shibboleth is the one most beloved of certain social scientists and academics. Dr Chris Neff from Sydney Uni is the most well-known spokesman.
According to this world-view the problem of increasing white shark bites is a mostly human psychological one. In a 2012 TedX talk he claimed “shark attack” was a phrase that has been invented. The holy grail and end point for this view is that “knowing more about shark behavior will reduce human–shark interactions.”
Unfortunately for this utopian view, the data sadly suggests not.
The problem appears not to be psychological or one of language or solvable by knowing more about shark behaviour. An honest re-writing of the recommendations for avoiding shark attacks would state 10am-3pm in small groups on sunny days in small-medium surf is the most dangerous combination of circumstances.
Biology does the explanatory heavy lifting: opportunistic attacks from apex ambush predators don’t give a flying fuck about human psychology.
Wrassling with these questions ain’t easy and I don’t want anyone walking away from this thinking I’ve got answers.
I have a different view to Dan Webber on the smart drum-lines. I think that might be the best compromise we’ve got at the moment.
It roughs up the teenage Whites before they get too comfortable and gives them a little free boat trip from the area courtesy of the taxpayer. The data from that is useful to me. If the fishing is good and Whites are on the sniff I’ll modify my go-outs.
I won’t stop surfing but I’m not going to paddle out in junk beachies.
Not worth losing a leg over.
Respect for the predators, yes.
But I can’t get down with the veneration.
Humans have lived, played, worked, travelled in the ocean since Year Dot.
That’s what we do.
If Whites are coming back we’ll have to find a way to co-exist and if that means juveniles need to learn a little fear and caution of these skinny limbed mammals who play in the surf zone then so be it.
Yep, dont trigger Negs.
the julian rocks story never made sense. dude swam in front of an ambush predator? not likely. missus just wanted to make a hero out of him.
Your hypothesis about not surfing between 10 and 3 is flawed. You need to do a weighted average otherwise of course you’re going to get more attacks at that time because there are more people in the water at that time. For shits and giggles see if more shark attacks happen on weekends. I bet they do.
Very interested to know how you suggest the sharks learn fear and caution. Has anyone taught a fish how to jump through the hoops at sea world? You can’t compare a fish’s brain to that of a mammal.
By all means take the attitude that we need a cull (i’m inclined to agree with you) but Sharks ‘learning’ to not eat people?? After decades we haven’t taught them not to get caught in nets, and the nets are in the water 24/7. Training them to not eat people must surely be a throwaway line and not serious.
Go fish.
LT can you get the contractor to do an experiment with a waterproof UE boom speaker. Get him to play orca calls to the sharks while they are hooked and after he releases them to see if they shit the bed/change behavior. Recall seeing a documentary where a shark diving boat was playing heavy metal to attract whites. Could be something in it..
Seems silly but who knows anymore. Be wild if a $100 speaker playing orca calls scared them away. Far cheaper than shark shield
Here at BG, every week is Shark Week!
Thanks LT, a voice of reason in these troubling times.
Anyone that thinks GWS health is preferrable to a 15 year old kid’s life is certifiable. FFS.
Longtom I reckon u moved over the over – fishing issue too quickly, surely commercial fishing has had a impact on sharks food supply so they hanging around and sniffing out us a bit more. My father in law has a photo album from fishing in gnarloo over last 30 years and as u flip through it the fish get smaller and less exotic to current day. Still fish around now but surely not as many.
Yeah they’re famished, sacrifice yourself….
The best defence may well be our own intuition and senses. If it smells, feels, sounds ,tastes etc a bit off or different then take notice. Surf with people who can pick up on these things. I’ve had people look at me like a freak when I’ve said something smells wrong and paddled in…..only to find out later about a shark sighting occurred. Surfing with Longtom back in the day I knew I had a mate who could sense things as well. The ones you see are just the cream.
Shark science is a bit of a gravy train. I was a bit of a hanger on in the industry a couple years ago. Expensive boats and 4×4’s. Always someone else pays the fuel bill.
Shark paparazzi… It sells, its always all over every news outlet… and this website…
Perhaps a couple signs, placed strategically, might read “Fuck off ya great white cunts, man eating dogs”. Seems to have kept some Metro kooks home from Gunna may work for the Sharks too. It’s ok to use ‘white’ and ‘cunt’ together, I checked with the the Mob, you won’t get cancelled.
I grew up surfing in Western Australia and spent a good few years surfing in South Oz. There was always a risk of shark attack whenever we paddled out. Some places were more sharky than others, but we still accepted that risk. Now, with the great white shark population flourishing, that risk has gone far beyond what used to be acceptable. The great white is not an endangered species anymore. It is a fucken gravy train for certain scientists. It has also become some sort of reverse perverse totemic aggro symbol for deluded greenies who used to love dolphins and whales, mammals like us. Great whites have gotten out of control as a result of the species being afforded protected species status in the 1990s, combined with the increase in seal colonies and whale populations which are their main source of food. Shark fishing in Australia has been curtailed too, which means a lot more baby great whites are no longer getting caught for fish and chips. More juveniles are maturing into adults. This is a man-made problem that is getting worse. The solution is simple. Great whites need to be fished, their numbers trimmed, not culled. We do it with many other creatures, no big deal. Crocodiles in the top end of Australia were culled almost to oblivion. Like great whites they were put on an endangered list and preserved. The crocs grew in size and numbers again, to the point of getting out of control and chomping a few more locals and tourists. So the crocs got culled again back down what is deemed acceptable numbers. There was no public outcry about that, common sense prevails. Even kangaroos, Australia’s national emblem, get culled each year to reasonable numbers so they aren’t a pest to farmers and so on. Nobody protests about that either. Yet there is public uproar when there is talk of some action to rid the seas of a few of the biggest and most vicious hunters that have maimed and killed too many people in Australia these past few years, certainly compared to previous decades. It is frustrating that Governments can be persuaded by protesters who hardly ever step in the water, who make all this noise, along with those well-paid scientists making their claims to support their research and careers, while more surfers die. Getting rid of a few great whites won’t stop shark attacks happening. But it will at least make the sea a little safer for those of us who regularly use it.
not sure you know . but it’s the juveniles who mostly create the problems on the East Coast…..fisheries are rebounding , whale numbers have gone from hundreds to tens of thousands……..so actually the ocean has started replenishing again ,but,when you say this “. The solution is simple. Great whites need to be fished, their numbers trimmed, not culled.”
so how do you trim numbers without a cull?
Just to be a bit safer , get rid of some whites?
The juvies are on the east coast the submarines are on the west coast, ever wonder why when there is an attack in WA there ain’t no body to retrieve. We need to be fishing all GW’s 2.5 m up immediately
actually I live where the big submarines are…..in the South…….and not all bodies are completely eaten , as its a mistake on the sharks behalf……so it’s not the big ones it’s the juveniles……that are creating havoc….and if ya scared , don’t surf where GWS’s hang out!
I hear you re fisheries rebounding. Strict fishery management works. Aussie fisheries are probably the most regulated in the world. But I think they need to get more serious about a species that is clearly getting out of control. Balance needs to be restored. Trimming great white numbers can be done several ways. Drum lines work. We know this from populated places such as Sydney and the Gold Coast where they have been proven effective for many decades. They could be introduced to other places of concern. Re juvies, shark fishermen should be allowed to catch a quota again of baby great whites for fish and chips etc. Those quotas helped trim numbers in the past. Also, after any attack, there should be an immediate hunt to kill policy for at least a week in that area. Great whites do hang around attack areas. Remember Phil Horley, Cactus 1977? I was there watching. Well-known shark fisherman George Mastro steamed up to Cactus from Port Lincoln after the attack. He caught a 15 foot great white with a drum line a week after, just 100 meters from where the attack took place. We know it was the same shark because the jaw size and bite marks matched perfectly with Phil’s washed up surfboard. Maurice, I am not advocating kill all sharks with a massive cull. That’s ridiculous. Great whites and all sharks have an important role to play in the sea. I would just like to see a sensible plan put in place to help lessen what has become a more serious threat to our lives, certainly way more than what it used to be. Would like to catch up with you again. Missed you at Bells last year. Hope you got the family pic i left for you with Lulu. Cheers.
Getting rid of sharks might also mean the death knells for SharkGrit.
Have you considered that?
only when chaz missus stop writing the checks will this place die.
The ones in the photos look mighty like ‘Doby’ who was in a documentary called ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’, which showed how juvenile GW’s can be taught to return to their training grounds and be friendly with dogs…
They look like they are smiling
Perhaps happy to be home and have to a nice get-together with Ron Burgundy and his dog Baxter…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Fisheries science might be the most corrupt science.
16 of the fuckers tagged between Evans and Lennox in three days! hectic. We have to find a humane way to give em the flick without repeating the past and nearly killing them off. Maybe as LT suggested, a tag and tow is the best option for now.
tag and tow backwards
That extraordinary period of attacks in 2015 after the loss of Tadashi was the least crowded the surf around Ballina had been in years. For a couple of years locals stopped surfing and vistor numbers reduced heavily. With greatly reduced numbers of surfers in the water the attacks continued. It is not the number of surfers, it is the number of sharks.
“An honest re-writing of the recommendations for avoiding shark attacks would state 10am-3pm in small groups on sunny days in small-medium surf is the most dangerous combination of circumstances.”
And therein lies my problem. That’s a description of when I go surfing with my kids to a tee.
As a responsible parent, do I now take surfing of the menu during the “seasonally abundant ” winter period?
Likewise i though 10-3 would be safest time??? Just about to question LT on that – bit confused now!!
Surely before 10 under sun (east coast NSW) can stealth hunt in glare cant see em, after 3 as well in increasing shadows?
Surely sun highest in sky would be safest??
Small groups better than solo?
Fuck me no idea now
Go FISHING
the great news is you have a choice…..and are not forced one way or the other…at this rate with all the GWS’s being caught and tagged , should be able have an app which will tell you if there are sharks close by….keep someone on the beach with the phone a good pair of Bino’s??
Should be an app telling us where Great White Shark filets are being served
maybe we could get an app for the sharks?
The dorsal app keepings dinging so often, Lennox would never be surfed if that buoy is anything to go by. I had to uninstall the thing
ah but there would be those who surfed , just taking a risk!
i always skip and go for the main course
A responsible parent goes to beach grit for tips? Gonna end up in a covid hotspot not surfing.
bahhh
More sharks, more people
More interactions, more bites
More death and more tears
Chas loves shark stories
They fill the hole in his heart
Where Ashton once was
To fill that great hole
Would take five sharks, ten beanies
And twenty tables
To that we can add
Thirty vodka tonics and
One Machado shape
Thanks. I think very well reasoned and balanced views on such a vexed issue. It is difficult not to agree ‘something’ needs to be done about those aggressive whites before they attack (if we can accurately identify those ones).
This^^^. Nicely written, concise, factual. Well done LT.