South Australian government blames “algal bloom” for surge in fatal shark attacks on surfers

Great Whites goin' bad and chasing human meat cause of algae.

How about this wildcard in the game of finding a reason why Great Whites are tearing hell out of swimmers and surfers in South Australia.

The deputy premier of South Australia, who is also the state’s environment minister, Susan Close, has told Australia’s national broadcaster sharks are being driven nuts by a “toxic algal bloom” which is making ‘em act aggressively etc.

“They’re coming in closer and as people may have seen on Henley Beach which is a lovely tourist and metropolitan beach in Adelaide, there was a large white (white shark) that washed up, dying, and then, in fact, did die. They’re more numerous along our metropolitan coastline than we normally expect to see and also they appear to be in some distress and there’s some talk of them being more aggressive,” she said.

“Not only is it poisonous (to fish) but also causes haemorrhaging of the skin and overnight it sucks oxygen out of the ocean beneath it which means that the kind of fish that can’t move away are also suffocating. Because it’s been unseasonably warm for so long, we have seen more people down by the beach wanting to go for a swim and that’s why we have decided to increase the shark patrol for a little longer-than-normal.”

It’s a long bow, you’d think, although the Close has form when it comes to these sorta things. 

She chaired two parliamentary committees: Sustainable Farming Practices, and Dogs and Cats as Companion Animals. She has also been a member of two other parliamentary committees: Port Augusta Power Stations, and Aboriginal Lands.

Great Whites have been protected in Australian waters since 1999, with numbers “exploding.”

I don’t wanna drag out ol Jeffy Schmucker every other day, but he’s been on the water for the last fifty years and…he knows. And his advice is, the increasing population has made surfing a risk no one should take. 

The death of Streaky Bay local Lance Appleby, killed by a Great White shark, the fourth fatal attack on a surfer by a White in less than two years, he said, was the final straw. 

Lance’s death at Granites followed the killing of Todd Gendle at the same spot last October, of fifteen-year-old Khai Cowley at Ethels last December and school teacher Simon Baccanello at Elliston last May.

Etc etc and etc. 

But, yeah, algal bloom.