Great White Trial: NSW Threatens Prison Over Bold Shark Deterrent Plan

"Give me permission to bait Great White sharks 'not catch' and I will show the efficiency of every deterrent out there."

A plan to independently test a shark deterrent approved by shark expert Ocean Ramsey on Great White sharks has fallen at the first hurdle after the NSW government threatened to fine and imprison the tester if he “interfered” with the supposedly endangered fish.

The adorable Ocean Ramsey, whose sculpted platinum hair swings as if in a shampoo commercial even without a wind machine to blow it, had gone on the record, as they say, to endorse a made-in-Australia shark repellant for surfers that actually works on Great Whites, which were, until the recent run of bull shark hits, the number one killer of swimmers, divers and surfers in Australia.

If you live in Western Australia, where surfers and spear fishermen disappear into the mouths of Great Whites with a reasonable sorta regularity, two in the last few weeks, you can get a government rebate of two hundred bucks. 

The Rpela shark deterrent was developed by Dave Smith, a Perth-based surfboard shaper and founder of Surfsafe (later rebranded as Rpela) who said he got “sick of surfers dying.”

Joel Nancarrow you know well, he’s the cat who swung into Sydney during the run of bull shark attacks and pulled a half-tonner a short swim off the city’s prettiest harbour beach and a few hundred yards from where Nico Antic was fatally attacked in waist-deep water.

He put the Shark Banz to the test a few weeks back, TLDR, they work on little sharks, not so great on the big boys and big gals.

Given the Department of Primary Industry’s inability to either collect meaningful data or temper the wild explosion in attacks, Nancarrow has become a one-man show of data collection in real time.

So, he figures, let’s see if a shark repellant is going to do anything against a Great White.

In a letter to the DPI he writes,

Hi (Redacted),

Joel from Hunter shark jaw here.

I have had incredible amounts of surfers msg me asking me about the efficiency of Rpela and ocean eyes shark deterrents on great whites.

I have taken it upon myself to obtain these items and in all honesty, I plan on testing them by baiting whites off a surfboard with cameras and deterrent devices attached.

This is somewhat of a formal email to ask if you can forward this onto the person responsible for granting permission to go ahead for the next 90 days and test them openly on white sharks.

I will work alone, unless one of my 2 crew are free, no Audience, no crowds and no work on beaches that are patrolled. I will not be within sight of swimmers or surfers and will cease working on weekends as to not draw the news.

Once finished, I will openly share my factual results with my audience on my page and grant the use of the study to whom ever else wants to use it.

The results can not and will not be altered in any form, as the results of my study is my reputation and business on the line.

The DPI has recently lost a significant amount of credibility within the public due to less than adequate information and results provided following a summer of multiple incidents involving sharks.

As you are well aware, I’m a registered business and any incidents/damage/injury will be of no consequence for the DPI, I will also use my own personal financial backing to complete.

As he explained to his followers,

I was going to keep this quiet and share it with the surfing community once I finished as it’s meant to protect against white sharks.

I can’t legally target whites without the dpi entering into an agreement with me to do so.

Chances of them doing that are almost 0.

I’ve seen so much today about “experts” wanting these things tested, I’ll happily put it out there.

Give me permission to bait white sharks over winters “not catch” and I will get you the proof that will show the efficiency of every deterrent out there in Australian waters beyond doubt.

If I get permission, I will make it my goal all winter to chase and test these on great whites.

As Nancarrow predicted, of course, the DPI shut down any thought of doin’ meaningful testing.

Fisheries email response time is A1!!!!!!

Response is exactly what I expected.

Bunch of legal garbage that they hide behind.

That’s the issue with the DPI, it’s all a job to them, they couldn’t care about the actual results and a cheap solution, as long at they are getting paid.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer about safety for these guys, it’s all about in-house study and pre determined outcomes.

Anyway, looks like we will be testing them on whalers.

If Great Whites are still a threatened species, my understanding is they must be hard to come by and we shouldn’t encounter any during our project, any that we do encounter will obviously be an extremely rare experience that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Let’s put it to the court, shall we?

Do you think Nancarrow should be given an exemption to test the Rpela and any other shark deterrent on Great Whites or does government know best?