While I learned to surf in Bondi and also Sydney harbour during big north swells, and moved to Avalon and then Angourie years later, I also make regular trips up to Ballina, where I surf with one of my brothers, who lives there. I also took my kids camping at Broom’s Head last year and Mollymook for a surf holiday, where we will return next month.
Had you told me a decade ago there would be shark attacks at all of these surf spots over the next ten years, I would have thought you were mad or paranoid. “Impossible” I would have said “There have been no attacks at any of these places in living memory”. The fact that there now has been, is driving me mad and paranoid.
There are so many fishermen up here in Yamba that I thought they might know why there have been so many attacks. Most say it has to do with dwindling fish supplies, warmer water bringing the fish in closer, and more surfers in the water.
Personally I believe the elephant in the room is whale and Great White shark protection. The increasing number of migrating whales coupled with the protection of Great White pointers correlates exactly with sightings and attacks. While this might seem a distasteful truth and controversial theory, I am not alone in believing it.
Given the public appetite for conservation (and I am not suggesting the killing of either species) it’s a perfectly predictable outcome when one tampers with the food chain. As the old saying goes “You muck around with the food chain and you might become a part of it.”
When we stopped killing whales, the recently protected Great White shark numbers increased exponentially – as their primary food source did – and now we accidently get bitten occasionally. It’s not rocket science. Speaking of which – science that is – there is evidence from a West Australian study that points out the direct relationship.
Professor Peter Spivulas published a paper in The Australian Medical Journal in February 2014, which concluded, “As whale abundance increases off the coast of Western Australia, it is reasonable to predict that, in the absence of effective personal or policy based risk mitigation, the risk of Great White shark bite, when undertaking recreational water activities off the southwest coast of WA, will continue to increase.”
WA’s 13 confirmed or likely great white fatalities since 1995 have mostly occurred in concurrence with the migrating whales. The WA fisheries and Government are well aware that the majority of great white attacks occur during the whale migration season in winter and spring, but fail to quell the public’s fears that the chance of a great white attack during this season is much more likely.
Attacks will continue to escalate as whale and shark numbers grow; whether during or out of migration periods. I know many fishermen who have spent the better part of 50 years on the waters off the east coast of Australia and all say they are seeing more Great Whites than ever before. As well as many more other sharks as well.
This scientific paper was largely ignored by the mainstream press and indicates an unwillingness to recognise a conflicting ‘storyline’.’ Even the WA fisheries dept were circumspect. “The winter and spring period also corresponds with the whale migration season. While this may be coincidental, White sharks are known to feed on whales, so caution should be exercised near a whale carcass or other attractants.” Talk about stating the bleeding obvious.
The memorial at Shelly Beach, Ballina of shark attack victim Tadashi Nakahara. Photo: Dan WebberThe fact is that the media experience confusion when science goes against public sentiment. No publications but the most objective want to handle such incriminatory evidence when the prevailing public feeling is toward protection of both whale and Great Whites.
I talked to an old school friend surfer who happens to run Taronga Zoo, and while not aware of the WA report said, “Irrespective of why it’s happening, we have to learn to live alongside animals when in the wild. I’ve just returned from Sumatra where there are very few Sumatran tigers left in the wild, but trying to explain the importance of not killing them to villagers – who are rightly afraid for their children’s lives – can be challenging, it’s got to do with education and taking precautionary measures.”
Back in Australia, this should not come as such a surprise. Are we not educated enough to understand the truth and then prepare ourselves as best we can, so as to act accordingly? Apparently not.
It’s just the truth. Why feel afraid of what might really be going on? As my friend at the Zoo said; “There are myriad proven shark deterrents available which reduce the likelihood of attack year round.” Netting, sonar and even sinking old ships far out off the coast attract the food-stock away from the coast.
There are even sonar watches that emit a disturbing sound to sharks and discourage them venturing closer. Until we admit and accept the correlation between the Government’s sanctioned Great White shark and whale protection and humans being attacked, we will continue to live in the darkness of ignorance and be led by politicians and media outlets – which are mostly driven by the desire to get re-elected or sell more media.
When I spoke to my brother who surfed the very spot in Ballina the day before the most recent fatal attack a few months ago, and then a friend who witnessed the attack from the car-park above – whose close friend felt the life drain from the attacked guys hand as he tried to pull him in – all agreed that despite the horror of the attack, and the fear of God it put into them, all surfed again in the same spot soon after.
The government and the media have to take some responsibility in researching and reporting this phenomenon. After dropping me at Ballina airport the other week, my brother Dan was only 150 meters from the last attack as it happened.
The fact that he pleaded not to be interviewed or used on TV fell on deaf ears as the swarm of camera-men and reporters asked every kind of question but the most important one; a proverbial feeding frenzy of “Did you see it?” “Was there a lot of blood?” etc.
Of course, as they only wanted to fan the fire of the scare campaign, he was interviewed and used on TV, and even though he actually had something of value to contribute, he was right in thinking it would be ignored. The quote they used from him, which included his face was, “I only saw him on the ground being attended.”
Pretty soon everyone was back in the water anyway, many with no idea that anything had even happened; as Dan said, “There is not even a white board at the clubhouse, or a black flag or something to notify of the attack or presence of a great white!”
Personally, being a lover of graphs, I find it impossible to believe the attacks will not only continue, but increase. And even given the shark deterrents, if you compare the growing popularity of surfing with preservation of large species of marine life, surely the most obvious solution is inland ‘wave pools’.
Either that or get used to a lot more surfers getting bitten by sharks. As we have proved time and again, we always get back out there; sometimes within the hour; as was the case at Ballina last month.
My brother Dan was watching the competition live from Sth Africa last night while on Skype with my brother Greg. Dan said that he was talking to and looking at Greg when the shark attack happened live on the webcast. Dan said the look on Greg’s face was so heavy because he had never seen anyone react as Greg did to that live footage.
“I had no idea what it could have been that Greg had seen but I knew it was something very, very bad, and that a persons’ life must have been at stake … of even lost.”
Dan focused back on the completion and, like the rest of the surfing world watching live – as well as the rest of the world not watching live – all recognised our powerlessness of when it comes to dealing with animals like this in the wild.
I talked to Robbie Bain today and he told me that watching it live was one of the most terrifying experiences of his life; waiting for that wave to pass and see whether Mick was dead or alive. “After a lifetime of near death experiences of my own, all of which I was super lucky to survive, I was so freaked out that Mick was going to be killed.”
God was on Mick Fanning’s side this time, but not everybody has been so lucky; or will be for that matter.
