LiQUiFY Magazine August September 2015 | Page 8

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