“Fatalities on our beaches shouldn’t terrify us; they should make us more humble…”
There was a very interesting, provocative y’might say, take on the recent spate of shark attacks in the Sydney Morning Herald this morn.
Malcolm Knox, an award-winning author and columnist, a surfer who ghost-wrote Hayden Cox’s terrific memoir New Wave Vision, found a little silver lining in the deaths of Nico Antic and Mercury Psillakis and the maiming of Andre de Ruyter in his piece, If a summer of sharks restores our respect for the ocean, that’s no bad thing.
Knox writes,
There has been a widespread sense of loss, as if people have had their territorial rights to their ocean summer rescinded. Warm days have heightened this feeling that an entitlement has been taken away. As one proponent of shark culling asked, “Sharks can have the whole ocean. Can’t we just have the first hundred metres?”
While understandable, these sentiments are based more in emotion and habit than evidence. It hasn’t taken long for humans to get used to the idea that they own this fringe of littoral water, and that sharks, like those other beach infringers, the cabana builders, have violated their free space. I’m not saying that selfish cabana people are any smarter than sharks, but regulation and negotiation can at least modify their behaviour. Sharks tend not to listen to reasoning.
If a positive can be taken from this year’s shark incidents, it will be to reverse some assumptions and restore respect for the ocean. It’s not our swimming pool. It was never ours to take away.
And a little later.
For colonial Australians, beach swimming began only a century ago and escalated to mass popularity in the last 50 years. In a blink, society has escalated the ocean environment from something unknown to a feature of cultural identity as Australian as the quarter-acre block. Irrational fear to reckless overconfidence in two generations.
If there is one hope to take from the sad sight of this January’s empty beaches, it’s that respect for the ocean must be rebuilt. Not fear.
Provocative yes?
Question: Do you believe the attacks were an important lesson, time for the dang colonialist to show some respect, or proof, if further proof was necessary, of the healthy stock of sharks in coastal Australian waters?
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I bet if a few protected brown snakes kept coming onto the SCG during a test match and killing a cricketer and cancelling test match cricket, he wouldn’t be saying “respect for the land needs to stay solid”
it’s getting harder and harder for maga to justify what the golden taco does…no plan just his version of what should be….such a mess right now …onwards and upwards!
The average life of a bull shark is 12-16 years, I’ve been surfing for 40+ years
That means they’re technically in my domain no?
ah 30-50 yrs is the real figure!
People need a memory jog , the ocean is not tame.
I’m pretty sure this author prefers sharks than ‘white’ people.
What’s his take on terrorists attacks in Auatralian solo?
Just curious..
If the author loves lessons in respect for the ocean I’m sure there’s a number of slabby reefs that we’d love to see him get facially acquainted with
I’m generally pretty neutral on the shark thing and pretty keen on critiquing colonialism but this take does not really enrich the discussion
Where’s the live feed?
Chas sleeps in on Sundays, getting his beauty rest.
Thought they’d run girls today. Guess not
Waves look great, ocean has its rhythm today.
Looks clean for this early in the morning
I’m starting to realize that Chas and Derek are lucky they have BG because they could never keep a normal job for any length of time.
Have they actually considered this – rather than nets and drumlines – live feed?
A lady from up here who surfs at OB and swam from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco is planning on swimming the entire length of California in a little while.
is she swimming all the way to Arizona, or will it be Nevada?
Sounds like all the victims fucked around and found out. If a shark attacks you, you should COMPLY.
Sharks are the Aussie version of ICE . These backpacker adult learners need a good cull. Yelling at clueless Germans is becoming the new norm for small days around here
Has a backpacker ever been bitten?
Red Fort Worth flipped Blue
Thought life under Trump 2.0 was supposed to be great and we just had to enjoy it…
Please, Hip. Only if it’s surf adjacent.
I don’t care if people talk politics, but surely BG can’t be the place where we actively bring it up.
I can assure you that things are going to get much worse before they get better (not that there won’t be small victories along the way) and it will be very ugly.
Also, internet said that Dump shat himself in the Oval Office and kicked out the entire media 20 seconds after. His lapel mic picked up the evacuation
yeah BGers have shown there is a place for commenting on political/lifestyle affecting/ Geo Politics……every day there is now drama affecting us all…bad news/good news , all depending on your politics /religion…is surfing a religion?
So yeah incredible news that the GOP just lost SD 9 with a 30+ point swing from a year ago………I think Happy camper left , as the writing is on the wall….and it’s become near impossible now to defend the actions of el taco….shit is hitting the fan bigtime and the people of the USA are slowly waking up …everyday now the downward spiral continues……
heady times eh Mo?
fuck yeah….we are living in a very unstable world on every level…and it’s still getting more unstable….so it’s all about being able to navigate the storm of instability and prepare new plans business/life……to survive and even revel in being apart of the new world order which will not be DT and his merry band of grifters…….amazing time in history should we survive….or how many will???
We’re not allowed to have WW3 until I win a heat this year at age 55.
Ooh, scary…
Oh sure, we don’t have a problem killing any other creatures that suit our fancy – poisoning rabbits by the millions, roos, erasing 90% of the insects with pesticides, cull a million sheep or cattle or chickens here or there at the hint of a “virus”. But these shark attacks are quite useful, stoking fear of extending beyond our pens. No more free-range humans, ay? Be content with your screens, plebes – it’s safer. Fuckin take matters into your own hands. How’s the nanny state going to manage 100 shark fishers in a hundred boats going out on the regular? Just get to work, get the numbers down. Your government is not going to save you, or give you permission. It has its own agenda, and could not care less whether you get eaten or not. Stop waiting.
Not to take away from what you wrote but you do realize that sheep, cattle, and chickens are domesticated animals that were created by humans for food/sustenance and don’t exist in the wild? Don’t you?
You do realize that those distinctions only exist in our minds and not the animal’s, don’t you?
What’s that supposed to mean?
What is your justification for killing or not killing a creature? We don’t kill it because it’s wrong to kill creatures indiscriminately, or we don’t kill it because it’s wild? We sure kill plenty of wild fish that we like to eat. We sure kill plenty of wild insects, Roos, and the like. So what is the rationale here? Sure seems like cherry picking. The government and academics use a vague “ecosystem balance” calculus that has no here or there, and can be imposed selectively to fulfill whatever their agenda happens to be. Which in this case is an anti-human agenda.
If bull sharks are causing clusters of attacks on humans they are undoubtedly also causing havoc on the food chain placing significant stress on other pelagic predators. Bull sharks are ultimately behaving like invasive species and if their populations are not managed there could be significant ripple effects across the entire ecosystem entirely unrelated to any human activity.
there is no data to say Bulls sharks are increasing in numbers……the problem is their environment has changed….by us…
Chickens don’t exist in the wild?
When was the last time you were on Kauai or the North Shore?
And the Bighorn Sheep?
I’ll give you that but those aren’t the sheep he’s referring to.
last year but those chickens escaped during Iniki. They don’t naturally exist on their own.
They exist on their own just fine now. Maybe too well depending on who you ask.
Besides how they came to exist in the wild is irrelevant, as everywhere was devoid of life until it was brought in by natural or human causes.
Nature always finds a way.
Don’t even bother, Barreled is not in a good moment here… kkkkk
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
Comment of the YEAR!
Seriously Barreled… So Cows and chickens are not Animals! They are a human invention, domestic creatures… kkkkkkkkkkkk
Kangaroos are wild and native etc.
There are Fleets out there, in the open oceans, killing hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of sharks a year. Here in the Caribbean our fisherman slaughter them as if they’re fuckin Mahi Mahi. Hence why I don’t eat shark anymore, even though it tastes fuckin great. They’re under attack here from fishermen using hand lines in small boats right up to the small, commercial operations. Needs much more regulation, and protection.
But it ain’t NOTHING for you Aussies to allow the fishing (and eating) of a few thousand whities and bulls a year. I’d prefer an option that keeps them alive and away from the beaches because I don’t want them killed, but until they figure out how to do that they need to get those numbers back down to levels where the surfers aren’t being killed.
How to enjoy a session at Lennox, Kings or Sharpes knowing that a submarine of death may decide to take a chunk of your lower half off, at a probably rate that is 10X any other surf zone on earth? You can’t. That’s not relaxing.
Also, how many whities do Californian fisherman legally fish a year? Can aus learn anything positive from their fishing habits? Either way, surfers need help (and also, probably, to stop surfing in certain conditions). My heart goes out to the family and friends of the kid who jumped off the rock. Simply horrific.
Why the fuck would Hayden Cox “write” a book? “How I sold a million copies of a fucked board to kooks priming a covid crowd explosion”
Xox
It’s a very good book!
pretty moronic take from Knoxy.
sometimes better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you’re an idiot than open it and remove all doubt.
“There has been a widespread sense of loss, as if people have had their territorial rights to their ocean summer rescinded.”
No mate, it’s because people have had their limbs removed and their lives rescinded.
I’d strangle a kitten for a 3 second tube because I’m selfish pile of a human.
So maybe Knoxy is both right and wrong.
Would you choke the chicken too?
What about spanking monkeys?
I do that and it doesn’t even have to be for a tube.
Depends, if someone pushes the dirt button.
Knoxy points out that relative to time man has been and is changing his environment with negative consequences and here we are again dealing with those consequences, so a little bit of history……
* man had decimated the whale population migrating Nth , from Antarctica was approximately 300 in 1983…Japanese whalers were in Antarctica…..
– Today there are well over 30,000 whales migrate Nth, thanx Captain Watson/Sea Shepherd
One of the main foods of sharks are the dead whales, so increase in dead whales dying naturally….lot more food for sharks!
* We now have the warmest water seen on the East Coast…as climate change is upon us…Bulls love the warmer water as in Sydney right now , so there are way more…man made climate change anyone?
* There have been ever increasing storms and floods ( Climate change_) which wash nutrients out of the rivers , which increase bait balls and the East Coast now has and environment for Bulls especially
* there is a theory running around in the media , that the sewage balls which are now part of Sydneys environment..called toxic poo balls add to the dirty water..??
* Yes so many people now use the beachs , and surfers have multiplied as have swimmers/ocean users….
So this our forever changing climate/beach users……this is part of the new normal…..and of course , “kill em all” as we need to frolick in the ocean and it’s all about me and my needs…..fuck anything else I do not care about any environmental consequences…because I want to surf in 100% security……
in Reunion Island in the 60’s local fisherman wiped out all the reef sharks for their fins …Hong Kong shark fin soup…….then the tigers and bulls moved in …..seems to be going well in Reunion?
yes, it’s a human modified ocean and urban environment.
Including bull shark numbers, which can be managed.
the problem with Bulls sharks are they breed in estuaries, love warmer dirtier water…that’s basically the whole East coast of Australia…….how would you manage them , as all the data shows Bullsharks have a stable population….so options?
bit of extra shark fishing effort from some commercial fishos – not that hard.
so what percentage of culling the sharks would it be to make you feel safe in the water?
or all of them?
Not about me mate.
I surf every day.
But would like to see bulls thinned to reduce risk for kids getting chomped and decrease predation on mulloway.
reducing risk to what point , would you be OK to say to kids it’s OK?
yeah, good point – if we got back to the stage where attacks were a rarity instead of a commonplace, that would be the ideal.
therein lies the problem……we just lived thru an era where there was little or no protection of the environment, which greatly affect out eco systems….and now …….trying to replenish over fished species etc has created a rejuvenated ocean , which has more sharks , as a natural order is being re-established, sorry to say things won’t get safer , so we all choices to make…..
Hey Tom, why is it ok to kill Mahi or Tuna, but not shark?
never forget 100 m sharks are killed a year!
Knoxy brah ghostwrite the MR biography too, first surf book I ever owned.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Otto as both young boy and old man at the same time?
Drumlines that look like Tony Abbott would be a good start
Or…..hear me out. Orcas.
Seems to obvious?
Xox
That’s a better idea
I don’t think they hunt bulls.
We are colonizing the place we were born? Hows that work?
maybe colonization still exists in the minds of…Pauline for example ?
Yeah well ,u are the fact maker
Respect the ocean. Respect the Great White. Kill a few Bull Sharks though.
Na I think Malcolm is saying we just build more wave pools and leave the ocean to those who have been there longer?
So you say this fella surfs Dez? I have never met met a surfer called Malcolm so there ya go, it’s true that you learn something new everyday. No idea about the other shit the cunt was carrying on about
He gets off on longboarding.
Mal Cum.
Xox
Malcolm Campbell! King of the bonza.