Shark Attack Stats...
yes its statistically a tiny chance if you look at the population as a whole v number of attacks, however if you were to look at the number of surfers who regularly surf alone early in the morning in south africa or south australia v number of attacks in those regions the odds would increase significantly. Through many years of regular spearfishing and bodyboarding (usually the first one out) both inshore and offshore in southern NSW i have had no encounters with sharks i would consider dangerous. Sure i've seen whalers and hammerheads but they were only small specimens of no more than 1.5 metres in length (and one larger grey nurse shark).
The only potential maneater i've seen was a massive tiger shark which i saw out of a 16 foot boat while fishing at night, and we probably attracted it to the area by pouring tuna oil over the side and burleying heavily. At the end of a day its a small risk you have to accept if you want to enjoy your time in the ocean. Continually looking over your shoulder or thinking every windchop is a fin quickly takes the fun out of surfing.
i have to say though i'm not particuarly happy about increasing numbers of seals along the south coast of NSW over the last few years, as we all know what likes to snack on furry mammals
I agree with you scoop. When you are surfing solo in SA on a reef break at dawn/dusk the odds are much higher than being "killed by a bee sting, run over by a car, etc. etc." There are large amount of seals and pointers being reported in SA (oz) lately. Much more than usual.
I have been surfing for many years and have had plenty of encounters, but thankfully nothing too serious and I have never lost a close friend to one either.
There have been numerous sharks around lately as well. I am always looking out for them.
White sharks, bull sharks and bronzies are the most common in my area, but the largest shark i have ever seen was in Northern NSW at Cudgen Reef. It was a Tiger Shark and was caught about 24 hours later (at night) reports say it was 15 feet long.
Apparently (a fisherman told me) the sharks migrate and they go past Byron Bay to the reefs at cudgen, past Fingal head and up to Stradbroke Island. Maybe that is why you dont hear of so many shark attacks on the gold coast. I have had shark encounters at every one of those places.
I used to surf at night on the full moon until i heard some horror stories.
In SA there are gigantic sharks, maneaters, that can take you in one bite. But remember, one bite from a 4 foot bull shark could kill you too. from blood loss.
Most sharks are protected species. WTF
Most sharks are protected species. WTF
By: "1963-malibu"
As they should be.
Are you saying that because we enter their habitats/environment, and sometimes they take an accidental bite out of us, that they should be killed?
I never have and never will understand people who have the idea of chasing down and killing a shark or any other animal that is acting on instinct in their naturtal environment in which we are entering into.
It's just the luck of the draw, and so unlikely that it's not worth worrying about as Scoopmaster said.
Sometimes there is a 'Vibe' and you're probably worth taking precaution during these times, just to be safe. This becomes all the more harder when your surfing a pumping and empty isolated reef break!
The reason sharks bite us is not because they are 'vicious maneaters' it is simply because they are curious, they do a thing called test biting, which literally means they bite us to see what we taste like. But sharks do not like the taste of humans so chances are they wont come back for a second bite, and even if they did you would be out of the water by the time they do.
there is also this myth that people think sharks mistake us for seals in our wetty, or that our skin flickering in the sun looks like a school of fish. This isnt true, sharks have much better vision than humans, especially in the water because its what they have adapted to.
I agree completely with you craig, sharks should definetly continued be protected they are the most important part of the ocean ecosystem.coming from south oz we just have to deal with the fact that theyre always around.
Hey I do not want to appear to not care for the longevity of sharks in the oceans. They are an important part of the ecosystem, top of the food chain in the sea and all that. Respect.
BUT, it used to be realistic and now it is unrealistic. Realistic is a shark is sighted and local fisherman go out and hunt it away from the crowded area, maybe drag it out to sea. Realistic is a shark attacks and kills someone and it is subsequently hunted and perhaps killed.
Unrealistic is a large shark is around, it is sighted for several days and there is nothing anyone can do about it. It is illegal to try and hunt/move it!
If a shark came and attacked your small child in the shallow waters and your child died, it is illegal for you to go hunt that shark an kill it. That is stupid and unrealistic.
Shark numbers are VERY HEALTHY on the east cost of Australia, shark encounters are becoming increasingly more common (as are attacks).
Australia has a HUGE percentage of the worlds fishable oceans and we are so over run by greenies that we produce next to zero percent of the worlds consumerable fish and we import 30 odd billion $ of fish, every year. Why are we importing fish from Thailand when we have ample fish in our oceans? It is the same reason that you cannot go and hunt a shark. Greenies and their idealistic nature.
If you are a greenie and your kid or friend was eaten by a shark, you would want to go hunt it.
I agree with you malibu, but would add that sharks are top of a food chain that has been hammered to brink of collapse ie mullet, jew ,snapper, and bait fish such as pillies slimy,s horsies to name a few. Why protect the top end and then leave them nothing much but us for them to eat. Protecting sharks above the rest is just the latest gig for the poorly informed greeny.
Their importance to system is overstated ,when allegedly tidying up seal and cetacean populations (dolphins whales ect),they eat more juveniles than old and sick, and the dead that they miss goes the bottom where it rapidly forms the basis of complex food chains beginning with myriads of detritivores all happy to do their bit. Despite what we are led to believe, nature is not that fragile that the loss of one organism is the end of the world. Life is remarkably resilient and flexible ,there will always be organisms waiting to fill a niche. As an example only ,did the sky fall in when whales were almost extincted from the east coast ? .I've seen reefs infested with sharks to the point where it had impacted heavily on local fish stocks.
As far as I'am concerned sharks have well and truly outlived their evolutionary useby date Maybe thats being a bit godlike, but I wonder if the shark proponents would like to have lions and tigers roaming the streets eating old bastards, fat bastards ,invalids, kids and the generally slow, or would their godlike beleifs only apply too other animals and not them.
Hell it's raining, the surfs fucked ,why not sit home and stir the pot!
Malibu, we are importing fish from Thailand because that is where a lot of our fish goes to be processed, it is cheaper to freight it there process it then freight it back here to sell. Rather than having the job done here, and just to add salt to the wound, the Australian guys usually a fisherman's co-op that have set up the processing plant in Thailand keep all the profit invested in Asia, The joke's on you Australia.
My 2 cents worth , leave the sharks alone, I surf in very sharky territory, never seen one.
And Nathan if a shark took a bite out of you, you would not be out of the water by the time it came round for the second bite.
hey shaun, well said.
I think that is the most intelligent post i have ever read on this website.
How is Australia, yeah have our fish, have our gold, coal, whatever! take it, make shit out of it and we will buy it back for ten times what we sold it to you for.
The JOKE is on you Australia.
As far as sharks are concerned, i have had several encounters in the last 5 years and they are more prevalent now than i can ever remember.
OK, a bit of clarification is needed here fellas.
A majority of our overseas sold seafood is the premium stuff sold at premium price to a premium market.
What we import is the inferior, cheaper shit that is generally farmed eg prawns, barra ect, because we are cheap bastards not wanting to pay higher prices. You get what you pay.
Instead of buying your seafood from major supermarkets, which is where a majority of the imports are,go to your local co-op and ask them where, what you want to buy, is from.
A bit more clarification, I worked in one of those fish processing factory's before the owners relocated to Asia, I live and surf with these guy's and they are not secretive about what happens and why, and if I was in there position I would probably do the same, there main reason for going overseas was that they could not get the workers, I don't like the fact that they keep the money in Asia, but what can you do?
Hey Shaun,
Just out of interest, were you fishing in Australian waters on this vessel?
Admiitedly I'm talking of the QLD seafood industry where I skipper vessels, both commercial and charter, fishing Aust waters and follow the product all the way to Asia.
No, this factory was on land. 20 years ago, it's happening, air transport is cheaper than Australian wages and then there is the added bonus of not paying tax in Aus.
The main reason they move there operation overseas was not the cost, it was that they could not get enough workersto run the place properly.
Uninformed greenies ?? I have friends who are marine biologists and infact studied marine biology myself for some time in Otago and the depth and integrity of their research before they even dared to make an announcement or recommendation was extreme.
Largely because they know how much the general public hate their comfortable status quo to be threatened.
If a shark bit my child or myself my first reaction would not be to hunt it down and kill it, nor would I wish for anyone else to do so.
Agreed with whetunui, humans kill cows etc everyday, do their fellow cows come and hunt humans down.
Shaun any marine biologist will tell you that it takes longer for a shark to digest [because of their size] so if you were bitten you would panic and rush out of the water before it returns.
Yeah right mate. as if a white is going to wait to digest your left leg before it gobbles on your right.
Follow the link , read it and tell me I'm wrong. And anyway if a shark has bitten a big chunk out of you what are the chances of paddling in before you bleed out.
http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/courts/coroner/findings/findings_2001/bayes....
1963-Malibu, it seems as if there is being a rejuvenation of shark stocks big and small on the East Coast and in SA, but are we seeing more attacks?
Not from what I can see, and these encounters show that they are not there to eat us, as there would be attacks all the time with the increased encounters.
Like Whetunui said, If one took my child I wouldn't go to hunt and kill it, what's that going to achieve besides more than likely killing the wrong shark and not the aggressor.
I do have to say though, that if there is a serial attacker, which has a taste for blood and is proven to be the same shark causing a number of attacks, maybe this shark should be dealt with just so things don't evolve further.
I know i am very sceptical of any research estimating populations of various shark species in Australian waters, as i assume many of these projects are not conducted from a purely scientific viewpoint and funding may be coming from either the green or commercial fishing lobby groups. The ongoing greenie propoganda regarding the Grey Nurse shark being "critically endangered" simply does not match what myself and those i have dived with over the years have seen. No i am not denying they were almost wiped out in the 1960's, however after spearfishing for 30 years my father had never seen a grey nurse then saw one a few years back near nelson bay, i had spearfished for a decade without seeing one then saw several in one summer near Currarong. None of these sharks carried the tags identifying many of the 300 or so claimed population on the east coast. Yes there is a small chance these sightings are purely coincidental but to me they are signs of increasing numbers of grey nurse sharks ( a good thing as these are beautiful and virtually harmless animals ), and proof that existing protection measures have worked and are working. However conservationists remain unhappy and want to put a 1.5km fishing exclusion zone around any known Grey Nurse Shark locations - over the top? - I think so!
And Malibu - it remains perfectly legal to fish for Tiger, Bull, Whaler and Hammerhead Sharks in NSW waters (as long as you limit your catch to one of each species, per day). Great White Sharks are the only frequent maneater that is protected in NSW waters. Having never seen one myself i'm not in a position to argue with that protected status, however from what i've heard juvenile great whites are locally common around the port stephens area.
whetunui what would you suggest? Shark counseling perhaps where a bunch of greenies would all sit down with the shark in question and suggest a better way to go about being a shark?
Who wants another bowl of this delicious shark fin soup?
I've already made it very clear to my parents/next of kin that if I ever get taken by a shark whilst surfing that it's my dying wish that the shark is NOT hunted and killed.
It just doesn't make sense to do so.
Tragic news from West Oz yesterday. Surely by now WA has now overtaken SA in the shark fatality department? Seems there's a couple of fatal attacks there every year on average.
It must have had some size about it - the report read "from the waist down, it was all gone"... I hope that means it was painless...
It also said it was perfect shark conditions "dark and gloomy water, overcast skies, light rain falling". Is that really perfect shark conditions?
I read that dawn and dusk are to be avoided as they are mostly feeding times. I also read full moons have higher attack statistics as well?
September.........there is something about this month and the proximity of big fck off noahs to the coast.........September is the time all the guru's in my area start getting a bit nervous. If you go through records of attacks I think that September would be a prominent month for attacks.
Maybe they are chasing schools of fish such as snapper which congragate inshore this time of year or maybe they are in a mating mode and have enhanced agression?? or maybe we are now recognised as a source of food, an easy morsel for the cruising messengers of death.......
I agree September October are the most notorious for shark encounters around here.
TWO PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN AUSTRALIA IN THE LAST WEEK FROM SHARKS.
see attack 1 and 4.
rest in peace amigos.
It is fair enough for someone to say 'if i get taken by a shark i dont want the shark to be hunted and killed, but it also fair enough to say that you would want that to happen...isnt it?' BUT it is illegal to hunt a shark in these 'marine sanctuaries', even if it has killed someone. a valid case for the law to be a bit loopy in my opinion and i am entitled to that opinion.
If you want to look at something interesting, check out Japan and their jellyfish problems! They have eaten all the fish off their coastline and are now inundated with BILLIONS, yes billions of jellyfish! What to do? They are turning jellyfish into food and cosmetics.
OK, a bit of clarification is needed here fellas.
A majority of our overseas sold seafood is the premium stuff sold at premium price to a premium market.
What we import is the inferior, cheaper shit that is generally farmed eg prawns, barra ect, because we are cheap bastards not wanting to pay higher prices. You get what you pay.
Instead of buying your seafood from major supermarkets, which is where a majority of the imports are,go to your local co-op and ask them where, what you want to buy, is from.
By: "fitzroy-21"
There's no doubt most of our fish we buy here is imported from overseas fish farms. It is identified that way in the shops by law. If it's Australian caught and processed overseas and that process can be tracked, then the label would say "Product of Australai".
None of which is to suggets I'm in favour of our stuff going overseas. A lot of our best fruit goes over there too.
we are also losing a lot of our best gold, coal, iron, wine, musicians, actors, sportsmen and women!
The whole process of catching fish in Australia and putting them on an airoplane to be 'processed' and then flying them back to Australia just seems like madness to me.
japan buys our coal, puts it on a boat and drives it up to Japan and drops it in the sea off their coastline to be used 'in the future'. We HAVE the coal, but do not use it.
What does Australia actually make?
I cannot think of anything that Australia makes that it is really good at, aside from maybe surfboards.
The realists out there will say 'ah but our wages are 10 times higher than asia' we cannot compete. The Asians are making fifty million little shitty things and exporting them around the planet, using our raw materials. What i dont understand is why we cannot make stuff here in Australia, for Australians. Like quality stuff, not for export.
I dont get it.
Fishing is one obvious example. But there are hundreds of others.
Australia doesnt make anything. We dig shit out of the ground and give it away and then buy it back for ten times what we sold it for.
@ malibu,
If the coal was dropped into the sea it would be rendered near useless because of salt, and the quantity of sulpher in coal would severely pollute their waters. It doesn't make sense.
We export thermal coal to Japan, India and parts of asia for their use to power their power stations. How the hell do we buy that back???
We don't buy any coal back.
China on the other hand, mines its own coal but still buys millions of tons of coal a year off us.
The coking coal exported is generally used for making steel, and the quality of that steel varies. Yes, we buy SOME of that back but it is a quite small quantity compared to the world wide use. We make alot of our own steel here.
Japan buys alot of our red fleshed fish eg tuna where as china prefers white flesh fish eg reef fish. I was involved in live coral trout export, as well as many others, and we most certainly don't buy that back mainly because of the premium price paid.
I agree we do some stupid shit in regards to export/import, but I think it is a lot more complex than we understand (economics etc). Australia is lucky, in regards that if everything turned to shit, we COULD go back to living off what we have here.
But this is all way off the original subject.......apologies
Boneyards is a great surf spot, and I reckon I have surfed there maybe 150 times over the the years. But I have never thought of it as a sharky spot at all - quite the opposite actually, but the problem is the proximity of a seal colony about 1 km to the west of the break which has taken hold in recent years. One of the guys who lives near the break was saying that the seals have been coming through the break in recent months, so I guess the shark is just following the food. The same is also true of the attack at South Point (Gracetown) last year - I believe there is a seal colony nearby there too now. Proliferation of seal colonies seems to mean an increace in sharks - and it seems reasonable to conclude that they attack wetsuit clad surfers mistaking them for seals. One guy tells the story that he was in the lineup with about 20 other guys when the shark swam under them all and picked off the bloke at the end. He said it was like a car driving under them. That chills the blood slightly.....
@ fitzroy
sorry mate,
what does Australia make?
I can't find anything of any consequence.
i disagree, i rekon if everything turned to shit Australia wouldnt have the manufacturing capabilities to make enough clothes or shelter, they would need to build loads of factories pronto and then educate people on working with cloth, sewing machines and all the other stuff that has been lost in the last generation.
Most australians know how to dig a rock out of the ground and put it on a truck though, it pays good money.
just go surfing and if there is a shark, for heavens sake dont suggest that someone should catch it, that would be DELUSIONAL nonsense. apparently.
Last time I was in Margs, the guy at the local dive shop mentioned that Cow Bommie is actually one of the main hangouts for Great Whites in the lower SW (the other hotspot are the reefs around Augusta). Not a particularly comforting thought when you're bobbing in the water a couple of kays offshore!
The statistic for shark attacks are higher but then look at the amount of surfer's in the water around the southwest nowdays, More people in the water mean's more chance of someone having an encounter with a shark, look at the last 3 shark attack's - At noisy's, southpoint and boneyard's not one of them was a local surfer, they were all people who had recently moved here or come down from perth. There's no such thing as a hotspot the GW's move everywhere, even in geographe bay, as the number of people increase in the area so will the encounter's/sighting's.
i agree west.
BUT,
IN THE PAST in many parts of Australia if there was a shark around, fishermen would go HUNT it to take it out to sea, or eat it. That sort of behaviour is outlawed in so many places these days. If there is a large shark, in some places, there are HUGE FINES for trying to catch it to protect human life.
West,
Are you suggesting that local sharks do not eat local people? Given that most crew down south these days are either from Perth or over East originally - there are very few true locals anyway. You're quite correct in the numbers of surfers in the water though. At any given time, from Cape to Cape, there are hundreds of surfers in the water. But the fact is that there have been three fatals since 2004, may also suggest that shark activity and shark populations have increased in the region. Not one fatal in 40+ years...3 fatals in 7 years.
For instance, years ago, seals were barely noticeable. But go and surf the bay these days and seals are a constant. The spots that you mentioned are all close to ever increasing seal populations, particularly around Cape Naturaliste.
So it is my humble opinion that the increase in seal populations is a contributing factor (along with other underlying factors) to the MASSIVE spike in not only shark sightings, but shark encounters, cape to cape. Surfer numbers are increasing everywhere in Australia - however, I'm not sure that shark attack numbers are increasing....except for the South West.
Again, you're quite correct re: more people, more sightings/encounters. But would it be outlandish to suggest that Great White numbers have increased since they became a protected species? And if this is hypothetically true, would an increase in seal populations potentially equate to greater Shark numbers to the region?
There have been two fatalities in Perth since 2000. Is this because of more people using the ocean, or an increase in shark numbers? Both attacks in Perth were on people who swam or snorkelled in the ocean all their lives and don't forget that the Noisy's attack was by two sharks...not one. The South Point attack took place when there was a large amount of seal activity in the water. Boneyards is just around the corner from the seal colony close to Naturaliste.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/recent-wa-shark-attacks/story-e6frg12c-1...
Who knows? But West - there is one certainty, their WILL be another and don't let it be you brother
...AND ARE A DIRECT CORELATION TO SOAP & DEBIT CARD RECIEPTS.
Another one in WA. That's three in two months.. bloody hell!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10721939/man-killed-by-sha...
yes thermal another one.bloody hell,f..king hell...anyone else think its cull time?
yes victor it's definitely time for a cull - surfers not sharks! when i get reports of 20 guys out on a "fun" day at a local reef on a WEEKDAY (though it was school hols) that only 5 years ago would generally have no more than 5-10 out on a WEEKEND i know it's getting to the point where it no longer seems worthwhile ever checking the surf again at many of my favourite breaks. Obviously shark numbers are too low to keep the crowds in check.
I have friends who have what i consider "no fear" of sharks, as they rely on stats, suggesting the likelihood of an attack is less than getting hit by lightning (or some such analogy). I personally don't subscribe to that logic. Been surfing for waaaay too long to believe in superstition, or to think the stats don't apply to me.
I think the biggy is the simple fact that if a shark decides to have a nibble of your leg or whatever, your time has come. Who in their right mind would willingly put themselves in that position. My answer is....almost every surfer. The joy we get out of mother ocean, is basically IMPOSSIBLE to explain to non-surfers. We will go to extraordinary lengths to find a wave without crowds. That is not to suggest such attacks don't occur in more public waters. But we do seek out the more exotic destinations. The more remote, (perhaps???) the more the risk. Think of Sth. Africa. Been there and done it as well. Scared the shit out of me the entire time i was in the water.
Hi,
I was reading this today and I thought the stats are actually in our favour...
http://www.smh.com.au/world/shark-attack-kills-south-african-surfer-2011...
It says that 79 shark attacks occurred worldwide last year and 6 were fatal.
If our current population is around 7 Billion, and looking at my local lately most of them are surfing... I'm really not fussed about them...
I do tell stories of them brushing past and fins in the water regularly to keep people safe on dry land where they should be though... Really works too - couple of shark stories in the car park and the crowds are much thinner the next day.
I am really sad for this bloke but the hype about regular attacks is really just that... hype...