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Today a memorial was held for Khai Cowley. The talented, 15-year-old South Australian surfer was the victim of a fatal shark attack on SA’s Yorke Peninsula in late December last year. The incident took place at Ethel Beach, with his father watching on in horror from a few metres away.
One can’t begin to imagine the family’s grief, but as ‘The Australian Shark-Incident Database’ chalks up another number in the cold language of statistics, the tight-nit South Australian surfing community has been turned upside down. After six reported shark incidents (three fatal) in the last 12 months, surfers swimmers and divers from SA are beginning to question their way of life and connection to the ocean. It doesn’t help that the sharks involved in the encounters have all been great whites.
“It does rock everybody because we’re all pretty tight,” explains Michael Wollenberg, who has spent decades roaming the South Australian coast, riding waves and connecting with fellow surfers. Over the phone Michael mentions one of his friends who has a son who is a top-level junior competitor. “How does a father, tell his sixteen-year-old son he can’t go and surf certain breaks because of the sharks – good luck. ”
Another friend of Michael’s was linked to the rescue of a surfer at Blacks, just a week after the fatal incident involving Khai Cowley. The press reported that the 64-year-old victim drove himself to the hospital after being bitten on the leg and buttocks by a great white. According to Michael someone else actually drove him to hospital but didn’t want the media attention. The real driver’s girlfriend got in touch with Michael after the incident and relayed what happened in a graphic text.
“She sent me a text saying the car is covered in blood and she’s freaking out. This is a real water-woman who’s spent her whole life in and around the ocean. Now she’s starting to question it.”
The spate of shark incidents in South Australia coincides with anecdotal reports by surfers and fishermen that they are seeing more sharks – big ones. “We’re all convinced there are more sharks,” emphasises Michael.
Despite the anecdotal evidence for increased shark numbers and greater risk, Michael suggests that it’s hard to make a case to government tourism bodies looking to airbrush the state’s image. “There should be warnings that these are dangerous waters but that will affect tourism and they don’t want to go there…”
There is also a scientific community that tends to dismiss anything anecdotal until they have raw scientific data telling them great white numbers have increased. Therein lies the rub for surfers and ocean-goers. There’s a lag time between the growth in the shark population and the unequivocal reports from scientists saying numbers are up. Some would argue that, in the interest of self-preservation, it’s better to heed the words of fishermen and fellow surfers than wait for confirmation from dry-haired scientists.
“The scientists don’t want to confirm anything until they can see it on the computer screen in their seventh floor office, ” suggests Michael.
The South Australian surfing community are not anti-science. Like many of us they are in awe of the great white and have a grave respect for the apex predator that has become synonymous with their waters. However, for now, the SA surfing community is literally at the sharp edge of a problem that is not going away on coastlines around Australia. Surfers in locations like Margaret River on the west coast and Foster on the east coast are feeling their daily lives disrupted by sharks. There is perhaps still a lingering government tendency to dismiss surfers to the fringe, a hangover from the days when they were labelled freeloading bludgers. Maybe a dead surfer can’t vote, but I think we’d all appreciate an honest acknowledgement that we may have a problem here; followed by a whole-hearted look at the shark issue.