I
s this the SHARKPOCALYPSE?
Since the dawn of surfing, in fact the dawn
of our ocean recreation, man has been tasked
with sharing the oceans with the many unusual
marine inhabitants. None strike more fear and
yet also stimulate more curiosity and awe than
that of the sharks - and none of those species
does as much damage when a negative
encounter occurs.
Over the years Australia has been host to many
fatal and non-fatal encounters with sharks and
it is nothing new to us all. The tabloid media
usually jumps on the incidents briefly, throw out
a stack of words like monster, lurking, stalking
and murderous - and then the media usually
drifts away as fast as the shark itself does - but
not lately.
Australia has seen a recent spike in shark
encounters with people, and a spike also in fatal
encounters, which has sparked a multitude of
complex and passionate debates. It started
in Western Australia, which resulted in culling
measures after the loss of lives experienced
there. More recently the focus has turned
squarely to the Northern NSW strip of coastline,
known for its healthy supply of large sharks but
not normally many encounters. Two fatalities
and a string of incidents in the last 11 months
has led people to ask - is this the begining of
a real sharkpocalypse? Is it sharkageddon or
worse, are the sharks suddenly deciding to put
people onto their list of things to eat?
Scientifically, there’s not much evidence to
support any of those theories but the alarm
and conscious fear in the region is nonetheless
manifesting regardless of the science. Factually,
there has been more large sharks near shore,
more incidents, more attacks or exploratory
bites and more sightings. As some Lennox
Head locals call for a cull - at least a measured
and targeted shark reduction plan - thousands
of conservationists and ocean-loving citizens
are equally passionate about preservation,
scientific solutions and no culling.
The theories are coming in quick and fast as
to why the sharks are here, why the spike in
people-on-shark incidents and what to do
about it. As to why there are more sharks here
- there are four main equally plausible and
logical reasons that we’ve heard so far from a
lot of people • The increase in the humpback whale
population is drawing more white sharks
north than ever, and they are all looking for
a feed close to shore where whale calves
often hug the coast
• Commercial and recreational fishing has
devastated pelagic fish stocks offshore, so
the usual food source is not available and
the sharks are being forced closer in to find
their next meal
• There are now more people than ever surfers, bodyboarders and swimmers in
the water, so it’s simple mathematics - so
there are going to be more encounters
• The sharks were always there but there
are now more cameras, TV crews, drones,
helicopters and witnesses than ever before
so we’re just hearing about it and reading
about it more on social media and in the
news
We’re inclined to go with all of those and say
it’s a combination of the many factors. As far
as solutions go, it’s hard to define one thing,
and perhaps like the many theories above,
there are many measured approaches to the
shark problem - specifically to see that the
public avoids negative encounters.
Nets and drumlines are claimed to have
worked on the Gold Coast but at what cost?
Thousands of non-target animals are killed
every year in Queensland, hundreds of sharks
are to be found on the inside of the nets
anyway and more recently, a lot of evidence is
starting to come forward demonstrating that
the drumline baits and the smaller catches do
nothinng but attract the larger predators that
would otherwise not be interested in the area or