Photographer : Sharyn Morrow
God damn my legs are looking fine! Honey brown and so they should be. Summer is here and I’ve filled my days at the beach—surfing, ice-cream, beach cricket… and obviously working on the tan!
There have been a few dramas though…
I was body boarding last Saturday and the waves were awesome—heavenly curves with perfect breaks. A massive wave approached and I geared up for an awesome ride. It started well, and I was cruising into shore when I slid off. I popped up, only to be whacked in the head by my board. BAM! It hurt so much. But don’t worry; I knew exactly what to do.
I grabbed the stupid board and dragged it back to my house. Running inside, I grabbed the kitchen knife, sharpened it and then darted back outside. I circled the board, knife in hand, and then in a moment of rage, stabbed the useless thing.
DIE! Die, you stupid board! How dare you hurt me!
Well, actually, I didn’t do that at all. That would be ridiculous.
Just like it’s ridiculous that the public often wants the shark killed when a person enters the sea and gets attacked. I hate to point out the obvious but sharks LIVE in the sea, it is THEIR home, YOU are responsible if you choose to enter their domain.
The sad irony is that the money Australian governments spend (due to public outcry) on netting to ‘protect’ Australian beaches has both dramatic consequences and is in contradiction to their other actions. For instance, many shark species, including the Great White Shark, are actually listed as threatened species. under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This means our governments are spending money to both kill sharks and protect them!
Shark nets are rectangular pieces of net suspended vertically in the water between buoys. They have mesh holes that are small enough not to bother small fish but the right size to entangle sharks.
The problem?
Other than the fact that we shouldn’t be trying to kill sharks in the first place, is that the nets trap all types of large marine life. This includes dolphins, whales and manta rays.
Let’s put shark attacks in perspective. My body boarding anecdote was a joke, but if you are going to get angry at sharks, you might as well get angry at surf boards and body boards because more people die from accidental drowning and submersion when surfing than they do from shark attacks. And it’s not just surfing either, the risk of dying from rock fishing, skin diving, or swimming is significantly higher than by shark attack. In 1995, 441 people died from these water activities, while only 1 person died from a shark attack in Australia.
It’s the sharks that need to be protected against us. On average per year there are less than 30 deaths worldwide due to shark attacks, but human fishing kills up to 100 million sharks. No wonder up to 80% of shark species are threatened with extinction.
Sharks kill to survive. Humans kill for fun, boredom, anger, sport…
It’s not sharks that are the threat. It’s us.
Oh, and just for the record, my body board is still in fine form but as for my legs… that may have been a little white lie…
How do I know this?
Department of the Environment and Heritage,
Sharks in Australian Waters,
http://www.deh.gov.au/coasts/species/sharks/index.html
Meerman, R 2007, 'Shark Nets',
ABC Science Online, http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/sharknets/
Taronga and Western Plains Zoos 2006, Australian shark attack file, http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=235
