Australia’s Great White crisis: “Every time you heard a siren you’d think, Oh my god who’s next?”

"Environmentalists openly celebrate fatal Great White shark attacks as nature fighting back against mankind."

The surf journalist Fred Pawle first contacted me ten years ago, soon after Ballina’s second shark attack in 2015.

I had just set up Ballina Shark Reports, a Facebook page devoted to the task of relaying shark sightings to the public. Throughout the ensuing spate of attacks, I kept Fred supplied with poignant anecdotes that he could use in his articles, like the sudden influx of wetsuits at a local op shop.

Another was an amusing request from a young shark attack victim as lifesavers attended to his injury. “Don’t tell Mum” became a headline. Fred also reported on my decision to deactivate the Facebook page. The Mayor had phoned me to say it was bad for business – the same attitude as the Mayor in Jaws.

A few months later, another attack occurred at the same beach.

Ten years on, and in the wake of further tragedies, Fred has made a documentary about the pain and suffering caused by shark attacks.

He interviewed me at North Wall, Ballina. I felt the need to criticise the scientists who favour Great white conservation over human safety, suggesting that they have lost something of their humanity. I also express my utter dismay at the government’s commitment to non-lethal shark mitigation measures, praying they soon realise that the current program is woefully inadequate.

I would have liked to continue explaining why non-lethal shark mitigation measures are inadequate. My academic treatment of the issue cites 80 plus research papers. But, people aren’t swayed by logic. Emotion reigns over the mind, not reason. Ultimately, the shark debate hinges on ideology, because people become emotionally invested in their worldview.

In extreme cases, environmentalists openly celebrate fatal Great White shark attacks as nature fighting back against mankind.

A Facebook post decrying the decision to cull Great White sharks in Western Australia elicited a storm of condemnation, including comments suggesting that fatal shark attacks are: “nature’s way of culling too many humans on this planet” and it’s just “nature getting its own back after all the destruction we have done to this world”.

In the religion of environmentalism, salvation is achieved through sustainability, even when the cost is imposed on others.