April 20, 2005
Australia and sharks
Australia is a really popular place for sharks, particularly those that can on occasion eat people (!) like the White Pointer shark (now an officially protected species of shark).
My parents live in Adelaide which is in the south of Australia, and the last major shark attack there occurred just before Christmas, where two 5-6m (yes, six meter long) White Pointer sharks took a surfer who was tow-surfing behind a boat, 300m offshore from West Beach, one of the cities swimming beaches. I'm currently living in Germany and the news about this attack even made it over here.
Around the same time, a spear-fisherman was taken by a shark off the coast of Queensland in the north of Australia.
Margaret River, near Perth, also seems to get a bit of the action as well, where another surfer was taken by two White pointer sharks, one 5 meters long, and the other 3, a few years ago. One of these sharks even launched itself out of the water during the attack (!)
Just this weekend, there was another attack at Bronte Beach, in Sydney, where a surfer fended off a shark attack by using his surfboard as protection (he was seen 30 minutes later back in the water with a new board :) )
All in all, only a handful of people are killed by shark attacks each year, so the chance of being attacked considering the size of the country and the amount of water out there is very very low. For example, in the year 2000 there were only 10 fatal attacks worldwide, of which 3 were in Australia.
As a surfer, and general water sportsman the potential presence of a shark nearby is something you have to acknowledge, but until something happens it's like acknowledging you may be hit by a drunk driver next time you cross the road, or you may be in a plane crash next time you fly. In fact, more people are probably killed by electric toasters each year than by sharks.
During my surfing times, I've only had one encounter with a shark which was in 2001, while surfing with my Dad at our local surf spot Browns beach, near Mount Gambier. The shark (unknown type, but of about 2 meters in size) appeared about 30 meters in front of us with it's fin popping out of the water. In a bit of a scramble both of us turned our boards around and started to paddle to shore with nothing but our fingertips.
While paddling, looking for a wave to ride into shore, and trying to what where the shark was, it closed in on us and actually swam underneath my board - close enough that I could have touched it (!).
I presume it was just curious, as then simply veered off left of my board's nose tip and we never saw it again. My Dad actually went back out into the water 20 minutes later for another surf.
Still, whenever I'm at home in Australia I can't wait to get out into the ocean for another surf as soon as I can! :)
Posted by crafterm at April 20, 2005 06:20 PM | TrackBack