Balancing Nature and Human Lives: The Cost of Prioritizing Sharks Over Safety

Last year, I was asked to write a review of shark mitigation measures for a book to be published by Springer Nature. I have only ever had one piece of research published in a peer reviewed journal so it was a great honour to be given this opportunity. I embraced it as enthusiastically as the Blues Brothers embraced their own “Mission from God”.

Unfortunately, the publisher has rejected the piece. I am not disappointed, however, since I was anticipating rejection on account of my refusal to toe the environmental line.

I knew from the outset that I was out of my depth. So, I contacted the NSW department of primary industries (DPI) for guidance. The scientists at DPI are responsible for the state’s shark mitigation program. I had already criticised the program in a number of articles published here and elsewhere, so they didn’t jump at the opportunity to be dragged through the mud.

I did eventually get help from an independent shark scientist. I had initially wanted to get a co-author from each shark attack hotspot. So, I asked a shark scientist who had written a PhD on the shark crisis in Brazil, if he knew any surfers who might be interested. He didn’t know anyone suitable, but offered to be a co-author himself. He mainly just gave feedback. But, he did actually write a conclusion, which was so antithetical to how I felt, that I was finally able to formulate my own conclusion.

The editor liked the idea of me co-authoring the piece with locals from each hotspot especially since the person I had chosen to represent Reunion Island was utterly opposed to the position held by the shark scientist from Brazil.

So, my job was to present both perspectives in a pragmatic back-and-forth discussion.

However, I knew that I was expected to toe the environmental line. Trying not to offend the academic establishment was a delicate balancing act. But, this infuriated the guy on Reunion, who couldn’t stomach what I had written and accused me of being paid off by Sea Shepherd. I eventually dumped the idea of sharing authorship, but the attempt had been fruitful, nonetheless.

Politics never interested me until a spate of shark attacks occurred at my local Ballina beach next to the rivermouth in 2015 and 2016.

Two of these attacks took place while I was surfing, one right in front of me. Over a period of two years, twelve shark attacks occurred along a 70 kilometre stretch of coast, eight within ten kilometres of Ballina, four within a kilometre of the river mouth. Two of the attacks were fatal.

Needless to say, the surfing community was traumatised, but so too was the community at large. The ominous sounds of ambulances and helicopters haunted the coastal strip, as journalists and film crews kept the story in the headlines.

Just like the pandemic, we spent two years talking about nothing else.

It mystified me that so many people seemed not to care about the suffering caused by shark attacks. I have spent most of the last ten years trying to understand the culture war.

The best explanation I have found is Iain McGilchrist’s book about the two hemispheres of the brain, titled “The Master and his Emissary”. He describes how differently the two hemispheres of the brain operate, and how different periods in history have been driven by one or the other side. According to McGilchrist, the West is currently going through a phase, which is dominated by a worldview dictated by the left hemisphere of the brain.

Another insight comes from a piece of research, which shows that conservatives and progressives have radically different values. The study’s survey data is represented in the form of a “heat map”, using warm colours to depict the priority given to one’s family, placed at the centre of a series of concentric rings, compared to the nonhuman environment, placed at the periphery.

Mapped onto McGilchrist’s theory, this heat map must oscillate back and forth through the course of human history, like the alternating phases of El Nino and La Nina concern actual heat buildup at opposite sides of the Pacific.

I guess it will take some time for the culture to swing back the other way.

If anyone feels like getting involved, I would suggest contacting their local council. The NSW state government says that they liaise with coastal councils about their preferred suite of shark mitigation measures. There is actually an association of coastal councils holding a conference at Mooloolaba, on the Sunshine Coast, on 31 July and 1 August 2025. It would be great if we could get someone representing our concerns at the conference. I have tried discussing it with Ballina Council. Hopefully, someone reading this will forward my effort to a like-minded councillor.

Read the paper here.

I have also made a 17 minute video, which combines a slideshow of portraits of shark attack fatalities with an AI generated review of the chapter, presented in the style of a radio talk show.

“I concocted bombs, and now I concoct coffee” 

Cast your minds, if you’re old enough, to the year 20o2 when Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack, ripped through hundred of tourists, killing over 200, at two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali.

My gal lost a close friend at the Sari Club, with another traumatised beyond any sort of measure after seeing laughing drinkers vaporised by the shrapnel. On a beachfront wall at Bondi, a mural mourns the death of a fifteen-year-old local girl, killed by the religious zealots.

The fine gent who built the bombs was a Javanese man Umar Patek, born Hisyam bin Alizein in 1966.

A leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network, Patek built the car bomb detonated outside the Sari Club and a smaller device used in Paddy’s Bar.

His role earned him the nickname “Demolition Man” during his 2012 trial. After the attacks, Patek evaded the cops for nine years, moving through Indonesia, the Philippines, and Pakistan, where he was arrested in Abbottabad in 2011, months before Osama bin Laden’s death in the same city.

A $1 million U.S. bounty underscored his status as one of Asia’s most-wanted terrorists.

Extradited to Indonesia, Patek was convicted of premeditated murder and other charges and got a 20-year sentence. He claimed remorse, stating he opposed the bombings and was unaware of their full scope, which spared him the death penalty.

Indonesian authorities granted him multiple sentence reductions for good behaviour leading to his controversial parole in December 2022 after serving just over half his term.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese call the decision to release Patek “abhorrent,” and survivors like Andrew Csabi expressed skepticism about Patek’s claimed deradicalisation.

Now, Patek has turned his game of lighting people up into coffee with hte launch of his brand, Coffee RAMU 1966 by Umar Patek.

In an Instagram post, the daddy company pushing the brand writes:

 

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“Always be successful Mr. Umar Patek He was known for the wounds he left, now he is remembered for the aroma of coffee he brewed. Her life’s journey is not about a dark past, but about the courage to change and choose a path that brings peace. One man, one cup of coffee, and a million new hopes.”

To the Asian press Patek said, simply:

“Once, I concocted bombs, and now I concoct coffee.”

An interesting part of this dramatic pivot is the use of Patek’s name as the selling point of the coffee.

It suggests to me that he’s seen as a hero in Indonesia for his work in evaporating ten score Western tourists.

Or, do you think, Indonesians are better at forgiveness and see his story arc as one of redemption etc?