“If this particular part of our culture is stripped away from us, we are no longer Australian.”
After a brutal few days that saw a 12-year-old boy declared brain dead, a young surfer suffer deep leg wounds and three others had the fear of god put into ’em, the shaper brother of Mercury Psillakis, killed by a Great White in Sydney in September, has swung into the shark debate warning that the fabric of Australian beach culture has been torn, maybe irrevocably.
“If it’s brown, stay on high ground,” writes Mike Psillakis. “It’s common knowledge that murky or brackish water can attract sharks into feeding. Especially bull sharks that come out from estuaries and rivers onto beaches to feed.
“All surfer’s and swimmer’s know this. To be aware of the dangers. But in my experience, most of the surfer’s I know, including myself always surf in these conditions for the past 46 years without any real issue.
“What is frightening for me is that there has been 3 attacks in the last 2 days. 2 of those critical. This is UNPRECEDENTED.
“I’m calling for serious questions regarding bull sharks and have humans created an imbalance with marine species? If so, can humans correct that imbalance? As we all know, Australians identity and lifestyle revolves around our love for the ocean. If this particular part of our culture is stripped away from us, we are no longer Australian.
“I’ll be opening up this conversion, and it will be ongoing.”
Responses were, it’s safe to say, uniformly on Psillakis’ side.
“The bulls have up to 13 full developed pups per litter. They give birth in estuaries where the salt water mix’s with fresh, this I assume gives them a fighting chance to mature. If fish stocks have been depleted by over fishing & sharks are being protected, wouldn’t this create an imbalance in the ecosystem? Hey I’m all for protecting marine life but something’s got to happen to mitigate the risk for ocean lovers.”
“Why do we have this love affair with sharks? We kill thousands of Kangaroos, we eat baby Lambs, and I can buy Marlin and Tuna steaks any time of the year. And yet the thought of culling the massive oversupply of bull sharks in our harbour to save people’s lives is repulsive?”
“This makes me question staying here. I love Australia and I love nature, especially being in the ocean. Although the likelihood something will happen is still very very low. Being there and not being able to relax takes away all I love about it.”
“All rivers, estuaries and open lakes are full of bull sharks in plague proportions. It’s been common knowledge for a long time with commercial fisherman warning many surfer along the east coast. Cull needs to be started.”
Meanwhile, just off the beach at Camp Cove, one of those insanely pretty Sydney Harbour beaches populated by celebs and with a Tel Aviv-style kiosk in the corner, fresh oranges hanging from netted bags, just reeled in a 500-pound bull shark.
Joel Nancarrow, a shark fisherman from Newcastle two hours north, who admits to a “deep dislike for bulls”, posted the photos on his Facebook page.
“I’ve never fished down in Sydney before and found the sharks so fast. There were people swimming when I was fighting this one,” he wrote. “I was at Camp Cove next to the pink public mooring. Please don’t swim off boats at the moment.”
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Shark wars weather wars potential wars of all kind. It’s going off.
all right , all right Chas , it’s 8am pst , time to post something other than sharks to get the North Americans fired up … how about the fact that some weirdo NYC mega church pastor has been busted in an audit for spending $10k on surfing , apparently for emotional healing?? (a JWFreeman linked story on IG)
All the evidence suggests that whenever SEVERE overfishing of sharks ceases their populations rebound back within 25 years.
That’s a remarkable recovery rate that very few apex predators can replicate.
Time for Australia to bring those numbers back down. Much more important would be to reduce industrial fishing by certain nations, but it seems that’s not going to happen so you’ll (we’ll) have to settle for the more easy to accomplish goals.
Also, fried shark tastes good, especially with a variety of chutneys (tamarind and golden apple being my favourite).
I don’t know about eating them. Aumakua always sits in the back of the mind. Don’t eat them and they won’t eat you.
“Yes, shark is generally considered halal by the majority of Islamic scholars and schools of thought (Sunni), as it’s a sea creature, but some Shia scholars only permit fish with scales, and local laws/harmful aspects might affect permissibility. The Quran states that food from the sea is lawful, and general consensus allows all sea animals, including sharks”
There’s your export market – Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world and the vast majority of Sunni Indonesians would have no problem buying and eating premium export quality Australian Bull Shark meat.
Government bounty of AUD $150 for each Bull Shark over 3 meters landed between Cape York and Kalbarri, as Bull Sharks are apparently not protected under the 1999 laws that produced this horrific over-population of sharks situation –
Get out there, boys – cull until it’s like 1999 again
Chat GPT is a quranic scholar now?
Would be a pretty epic situation.
Google Gemini, specifically – shark meat is considered halal for Muslims, which could be a big export market for Australia.
Better to have people eating sharks than sharks eating people –
Lol I understood the premise, and agree JSC
Stunning blue bird morning here this morning, ran down the track at back beach and the waves are fun as. 3 to 4ft hollow A frames, crystal clear water and I’m running back up the track to throw my boardies on. Run back down and have a quick look to see where to head out.
No cunt out, no cunt on the beach and a paddle out over a gutter to a back bank is what my head throws back at me. Fuck this get out there ya soft cock I say to myself and paddle out. Whole surf in between waves I pretty much lie on my board, with my feet in the air and just keep moving trying not to think of the current goings on. My head is like a good cop bad cop convo. You’ve done this thousands of times cunt, waters clear as … Then what the fuck are you doing out here with no cunt around, oh down there 200m is where that poor guy got hit and killed….
These ramblings are just to say I never used to think like this and things have changed dramatically. I have no idea what the way forward is, I will leave that to the “experts” but fucking something has to be done and hopefully soon as. For all the shark rooters on here I would LOVE to have yous here for an early morning surf before work, I honestly reckon your thinking would drastically change when faced with the reality
Every shark bite victim I’ve ever read about or met does not support the killing of sharks. Even Bethany Hamilton who would probably happily gut a petite blonde transgender woman.
Your poison tingles..
Thats the Sativa talking
Plenty of places in California (not really at spots south of Pt Mugu) that you simply don’t surf due to heavy shark activity. At the very least, nobody would be surprised if you got hit surfing those places since they are known shark territory. It sure as hell sits at the front of the mind when you are sitting with feet dangling at those spots.
Hasn’t there been a lot of observed white activity on the stretch between Ventura and Rincon recently?
There’s always shark activity in that area and northwest of Rincon, but its comprised of mostly juveniles whites, not that they can’t bite but they tend to focus on rays and such. There are a couple spots around Carpinteria that get frenzies from time to time with sharks known to pluck seals off the rocks, and people avoid a couple spots when that happens. That malibu artist guy films a ton of his footage around Carpinteria.
Estuary reef is teeming, stay away
Same down here. Stay up there. And that place is pretty meh.
You’ll be right mate, nothing compared to what its like down here
As stated in another thread, I know these feels. Yeah, it’s awesome getting great waves solo, but knowing that there are sharks in the vicinity means one is not at ease. And here on Big Island, shark attacks (tiger sharks) are infrequent, like maybe once a year. I can’t imagine what it’s like surfing in an area where people get attacked by sharks on a regular basis. Be safe, bruddah.
Thanks mate but not really much I can do it about it haha. I love surfing and my main time to get wet is early doors before work when the winds are good so just gotta keep on keeping on. May buy 10 shark bands, tie em together and wear it round me waist haha
I can picture it exactly.. Dreamtime??
Would be a shame to not resolve this in some way
Na Bograil back beach Kingy mate about 500m down from the reef where all the Noahs just love hanging out to have a feed haha. Funny you mention Fingal cuz I bumped into a mate of mine today from there and he was saying they have seen heaps of the cunts lately which I was stoked to hear about haha
Mental!!
Hey mate the sand is finally back at Snapper!! Sure you heard how Alfred ripped out huge amounts of sand around here but things are slowly returning to normal. Genuine question, is snapper the most rippable right in the world? Imagine it with only you and a few mates mates out faaaaaaark
https://www.swellnet.com/news/reels/2026/01/21/watch-snapper-rocks-210126
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Even George would cull
What’s a tel Aviv style kiosk?
Was it stolen with force from its neighbours?
Delicious fresh food served with a smile!
And a slice of genocide on the side.
In case you didn’t know – Jewish people are indigenous to Judea and Samaria for at least 3 000 years.
Many of the so-called “Palestinians” migrated to this area during the British mandate period and have no connection to the land whatsoever. Just recently arrived, ethnic Arab migrants from Arabia and other areas.
That argument seems to leave out a long period of time prior to 3,000 years ago. That entire region is a meeting point of cultures from all around that area and could be claimed by numerous entities depending on which period of history one focuses on and which periods are ignored.
Arguably every nation could be a “so-called” group of nationals… origins and myth are all part of nation-building. If Palestinians don’t exist than wtf is Jordan? Most of the Middle East geopolitical clusterfuck of made up borders that are irrespective of the local realities, clans, and people that exited before the Sykes-Picot treaty.
Israel as a modern nation state is arguably just as made-up as any other nation, with some seriously compelling narratives and circumstances surrounding it. That doesn’t absolve it from its war crimes, just as Gaza doesn’t absolve radical Islamism or kidnapping innocent Israeli citizens. Feeding into these nationalist narratives is a big fucking wank that takes away from any admirable sense values and treatment of one’s fellow man.
I remember staying in a Zionist settlement in the West Bank. Stayed with a Jewish family from New York that had converted (?) to ultra orthodox Hasidic Judaism. I’ve met plenty of cool hasids, ones that actually think Israel isn’t bound by a geographical location and is meant to act as a “light to all the nations,” irrespective of country, and have real issue with the nation state of Israel.
These were not those type of hasids.
We met with their community rabbi, and what ensued had to be one of the darkest, depraved rants about a group of humans being less than human scum. That the goal is to eradicate, kill, maim all the Arab women and children (this was in reference to Christians and Muslims), because they were, according to this Judaism, possessed by demons and needed to be cleansed from the earth. Sounded a lot more like a radical imam than a representative of a religious and philosophical tradition that has shaped Westrn Society in the form of judeo-Christians “ethics and values.”
These are the type of people that control legal courts in Israel and make it hell for the normal, agnostic Israeli to live their life, despite being a religious minority.
Btw, when we went to synagogue, the women in our group were put in a room where they couldn’t even listen to the service. They basically just sat around and did fuck all and had to be quiet for an hour. A downgrade from the mosque experience is how it was described to me.
**for all those who struggle with reading comprehension, this is describing a very radical, ultra orthodox Zionist perspective and ain’t a knock on Judaism at large or Israelis even. Just to say that there are some fucked forces at work in the heart of man, and that dark side starts sounding pretty much the fucking same at some point irrespective of race, nation, or creed.
There needs to be a bounty placed on them for a year or two to knock the numbers back, and then reassess the situation.
Heck they’re talking about a gun buyback since the Bondi terrorist attack, so a bounty on the main thing that’s potentially killing the Australian lifestyle, and tourism, makes sense too.
To think the problem will sort itself out is rather Emu-adjacent…
Don’t even think a bounty is necessary beefy. Just a mindset shift from the pols to say it’s ok to go get a few. Have it monitored, # reported to satisfy the shark experts coz their advice is working so well …. Cut all the green emotive crap out of the equation and try to find a balance. Coz it’s outta whack right now.
Some rich cunts son/daughter gonna get taken in Rose Bay – that’ll do it.
You can’t get them all anyway, GO FISH
Yeah you’d like to think so, but at the moment everyone’s allowed to take 1 bullshark per day in NSW (from what I read recently), but not many fishermen are actively fishing for them, as in, fuck all.
So surely a financial incentive would get the catch rate up quicker…
Start requesting it at the fish and chip shops. Flake was pretty standard growing up for me.
Problem is there’s got to be quota for them. Back in ye olden days here in NZ not many fishos built up a catch history of sharks, concentrating on the other more lucrative species, so there wasn’t much quota allocated. I suspect that situation is the same in most countries using a QMS.
Nothing wrong with eating young sharks. Trunked out to a metre. Fuck all mercury in them up to that size. Rig aka lemon fish here are top any way you want to cook them.
Edit: had a quick goog and I see WA still has a viable gummy shark fishery. They prolly fish it enough to keep the local shops supplied and not too worried about supplying interstate. Last time I was in Aus when the kids were small I couldn’t buy flake on the Gold Coast they were all cooking fucking basa as their go to fillet. I know it’s cheap but Fuck that shit.
He’s obviously hurting and loved his brother.
I wish it had been my brother coz He’s a complete cunt. But life don’t work that way unfortunately.
Never change bruz I fucking love you just the way you are. Anything you wanna get off your chest?
I’m humbled by what you said mate and appreciate you asking that. It’s the fact that crew like putin, Netanyahu,and a vast array of parasites in this world keep on keeping on while people like Mercury get the deal they get dealt with. As to what I said about my brother? Nah he’s a cunt. Hehe
Hahaha. Yeh man I think one of the sad things as you get older is you truly understand how rich, powerful shit cunts get away with anything and truly give zero fucks about the rest of us.
Like the old saying goes, if a king runs a kingdom and an emperor runs an empire then who runs a country?
Bully for him
Interesting:
“Water temperature is a key predictor of their presence. Bull
Sharks are present when water temperatures are above 20
degrees
When water temperature drops below 19 degrees, Bull
Sharks leave Sydney Harbour and travel north to Qld for
winter and spring”
https://www.sharksmart.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1447730/Bull-Shark-fact-sheet.pdf
There is always the option to stay out of the water when these events occur. Rivers are pushing tons of bait into the water. Bull sharks are following, as they do. Maybe not the best time to be in the water. Go hunting. Go fishing. Go golf. Ride moto. Maybe just pretend it’s flat until the bulls go away, as they do and will.
Do you still surf? Because it always seems like people who gave up surfing or don’t really surf much anymore write this kind of stuff…
I prefer drop knee longboarding. What about you? But isn’t the current bull shark issue due to heavy rains that washed a ton of bait down the rivers in that area? I could be wrong, I just recall there having been mention that the bull shark frenzy occurring right now is directly related to the rains. The tiger shark issue on the west coast is a completely different deal isn’t it?
upvoted for that first sentence, ha
Shark attacks in paradise is an amazing podcast about the bull shark problem on Reunion Island.
This has the potential to get a HELL of alot worse if authorities sit on their hands.
Reunion was a fucking clear water nightmare, authorities need to listen to it.
Yeah true, Shark attacks in paradise is about as good it gets in terms of analysis and understanding from those who have experienced what a sudden increase in attacks (then continuing over a long period) is like.
“I’m calling for serious questions regarding bull sharks and have humans created an imbalance with marine species? If so, can humans correct that imbalance?”
Can we fuck up the thing we already fucked up? Uh, yes?
Mate, I hate to break the news to you- but there is no “balanced state of nature”.
Since biology first began on this earth it’s been one upheaval after the other.
You are part of this- you will privilege your existence over other living elements of the natural world.
Every single thing you do, every single moment of your existence relies on this fact.
To a degree, yes. But you don’t hear me calling for the eradication of a species just so I can surf.
If your neighborhood was infested with rats and it was drawing snakes interest? Would you protect the rats and accept the snakes as acceptable collateral damage? At least you are aware of the equation…..
Just GO FISH. The problem won’t get better with the surplus of bulls unaddressed till the next election. It will get exponentially worse, that’s why it’s happening now. This is the preview.
Fuck it, kill ‘em all I guess, what could possibly be more important than playing in the ocean.
didn’t say that Tom
I know. But that’s the general vibe I’m getting from this comment section. Nothing matters but the thing I personally want, so fuck everything and everyone else. Makes sense, we’re all surfers after all. For an anti-depressive website, this place fucking sucks.
Isnt it more to do with multiple peoples lives being ruined?
Public safety.
maybe it’s the early morning coffee talking, but does strike me that this little corner of c. 2005 OG internet tech is less toxic than your average social media feed where you have pure trolls for trolling’s sake combined with a bunch of complete numbskulls — a few pure trolls dip their toe in around here occasionally but generally BG commenters seem to be trying to actually engage the topic in accord with their actual views on the subject (albeit often wrapped in more or less savage prose) — or at least if they’re a BG regular and trolling it’s in the grand BG tradition of talking shit for shit’s sake.
again, maybe just the coffee (fuck the hipster organic beans, it’s cafe bustelo , black)
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… Nuff said…
Omg
do you comment on borderland beats ?
What is that?
I was only passing along info for some of the best canned coffee on the planet.
Crazy stong, mix it thick and cream is advised, but so good.
Bro now you got me wondering why you ask that?
Sorry man just that a dude on that site uses that “nuff said” at the end of his comment all the time
That’s good.
I was worried Otto hijacked my profile to spread incendiary hate. Wouldn’t put it past him.
I stay away from all other forums, as BG is bot free, I think anyways….
Has Tom started deleting comments?
Or has he blocked me?
Jeez, no great loss, but thats real weak sauce.
It’ll come up as “content unavailable”
if he has . I’m a veteran at this. Jen sook blocked me and I’m proud of that
it did.
Comments back- he must have changed his mind.
oh well- no hard feelings Tom.
Back to content unavailable.
Would love to see the numbers showing how many people some have blocked as well as who has been blocked the most. Negs??
I’m wondering what happened to Sam. Did negs finally ban him permanently or did he try living out his fantasy of living in a tent in Baja and got disappeared by. cartels.
Sam who?
Free rider. The guy who always posted stuff like “the best surfer in the world is the one having the most fun”, and was obsessed with Dirk Ziff. I can picture him getting thrown into a well down there for being annoying.
Sam was great. I miss that d00d (along with a few others that are gone from here). Hope he’s okay and still surfing.
I always wished him a merry Christmas. He always said he lived on an extremely out of the way island somewhere, and would then complain about the new hotel’s being built in Oceanside.
Another new unusual character down in the comment section.
LOL, blocking is so weak
No one is saying that – not even Montague Webber.
Look up “straw man argument”.
Go Fish Australia
The oceans east of Australia have plenty of shark
As much as I despise the greeny narrative of it being their world and all, from looking at all the outbreaks of Bull attacks around the globe, the one key thing that sticks out is a change in their environment setting them off. What those changes are who knows, but they do seem to be a bellwether of sorts…
As far as a change in their environment “setting them off”…
Growing up in an area that was known for them I was taught they are always “set off” and they always seemed that way.
They love the shallows and are quickly aggressive.