sandspit, 1385180991

very sad RIP

udo, 1385182351

RIP brother.
timeline of w.a. attacks on that link page, shocking.

Craig, 1385182505

I thought it was maybe settling down over there, but then this sad news. Reast in peace :(

uplift, 1385182677

Yeh, bummer. Re attack frequency, this is our worst time of year, and 3 ab divers were harrassed at different spots on the same day last week. Its hard to compare and assess, as we always wonder what would happen if there were the same ever growing number of people, surfing as often around here as there are in the SW WA region.

udo, 1385182800

the stats show qld and nsw fatal shark attacks are 4 times higher than s.a or w.a.

uplift, 1385183343

Yeh, its not all roses over there. Just after I left Ballina, their version of a 'drought' broke, people were suddenly getting chomped by bull sharks, and there were attacks at 7 mile. I had to go back quickly not long after, and had a really late surf at nth wall with just Jo Hudson out. Tailor were jumping around, and he was totally freaking, telling me how many sightings there had been, drove himself crazy, and just cracked and bolted. The south wall paddle became a no-no.

uplift, 1385183439

Again, the numbers/frequency of surfing thing comes into play though.

cycd, 1385200703

The ellensbrook to gracetown stretch would have to be the closest (geographically) group of shark attacks recorded surely ... the reef this happened at this a.m is one i frequent too, i have seen a noah (swimming past) there while in the water about two years back.

I have been trying to get the name of the person attacked, has anyone heard? I have been trying to contact my mate who lives with me in Margs who fits the age & description via news on the web.

udo, 1385231635

cycd - chris boyd R.I.P.

simba, 1385242158

yeah uplift ive dived out of the ballina river mouth doing a drift with my mate years ago,100 ft viso one day and no b/s as far as you could see viso wise there were whalers and bullsharks,waiting for the runout and lunch,surprised there was that many.As for whites well they are a different kettle of fish so to speak and theres a lot more out there than they would have us believe,but most attacks seem to be over in that corner of wa which makes you wonder if its not a terratorial thing by one or maybe two sharks.Saw a doco recently where this tourist boat is filming these orcas off california and one orca dives down and surfaces with a 12ft white which the pod ripped to pieces in front of the lucky tourists,apparently all the tagged whites in the area disappeared for days after.So maybe play the sound of orcas under water along the beaches.?At least trial it.Feel for the guy and what his family would be going thru.

braithy, 1385245643

[quote=cycd]The ellensbrook to gracetown stretch would have to be the closest (geographically) group of shark attacks recorded surely ... the reef this happened at this a.m is one i frequent too, i have seen a noah (swimming past) there while in the water about two years back.
[/quote]

I'm know you were probably referring to the worst in Australia, which would be true. I'm pretty sure off the top of my head, Reunion Island is the worst in the world though. The amount of deaths there in the last decade is full on. So much so, the government there banned surfing and swimming and has shut down entire coastlines.

I know some old fishos from my time in south africa, and they say they've never seen so many great whites at any points in their life as to what they see now. And they've been doing it for 40-odd years.

I have family in esperence, WA and they say the abalone divers say similar things now too, re population of whites has exploded in the last 3/4's of a decade.

If this is true on a global scale, what are the causes? Tuna -- which the juve's feed on -- numbers have never been lower at any point in history as what they are now.

So ... if their juvenile food source is shrinking, wouldn't natural selection predicate their global numbers would be shrinking, not exploding?

simba, 1385246944

Years ago big game fishermen used to target sharks as part of the sport especially great whites and fishermen in general would hook them and certainly not release them. Seems as though the juveniles love shallow sandy beach set ups as in stockton beach at newcastle and surrounds and off areas like trestles in cali ,see sharkmen on foxtel,similar bottom cause they like rays, crabs etc easy prey till they move onto bigger prey to support there bulk.They are protected now and im sure the stocks of australian salmon have recovered,i think the cannery closed down ? as with the kingfish stocks as they dont use traps any more,thank god ,so there food supply in my opinion has increased .Certainly think the idea of cage diving and associating food and people is a big mistake and should be stopped.

cycd, 1385248774

[quote=udo]cycd - chris boyd R.I.P.[/quote]


Cheers udo ... saw this on the news last night and definately recognise the face.

Very sad RIP

reecen, 1385256192

Condolences to the family and friends of Chris Boyd.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2Dgwn2H.jpg[/IMG]

cycd, 1385258312

Where was that pic taken reecen? west coast SA? .... they be some large fish

reecen, 1385260925

Cycd don't know for sure but think it is from Ceduna.
Alf Dean is a legend among shark fishing circles, pretty sure he still holds the record for biggest fish ever landed on a rod and reel.
No one thinning out the numbers of these big boys anymore, like they used to.
How's the size of the chunk bitten out of the head of that shark.

simba, 1385265094

if memory serves me correct the biggest white caught was in hawaii

udo, 1385267359

cuba or Wikipedia quotes a 7m white in Taiwan.

cycd, 1385275171

Yeah i noticed that bite .... those prehistoric things are part submarine!

yorkessurfer, 1385277189

So sad for his family & kids. They're such big creatures and living and surfing in White Pointer territory they are never far from your thoughts. Nervous jokes mask the reality that you don't really have a chance if one wants you.
This is a replica of a huge White that was caught off Streaky Bay and broke the record for biggest caught on a rod and reel. How he managed to land the thing I have no idea?

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4NJ0Vms.jpg[/IMG]

maddogmorley, 1385283272

If I'm not wrong yorkes that replica in the servo held the world record for 5 mins or so.....until a baby seal with a chain tied around it's neck fell out....pretty sure that's the one anyway but happy to be corrected?

uplift, 1385284111

Yeh simba, that river mouth is the perfect spot for a feed for them. I hated that south wall paddle. Over here its pretty basic I reckon. They used to get bumped off left right and centre, by all of the fishing codes. That one at streaky is big, but over the years there have been some burgers caught, and as its illegal, they don't get bandied about. We saw one caught at flinders that was monstrous, and the jaws were ridiculous. The surfing doctor that used to be in Elliston was about 6'3", and I'm 6' and we could have swum down its throat with eeze without getting touched. It made your hair stand on end looking at the things. Then the tuna farms/cage diving thing makes them hang around and get trained to check us out more. Semi loads of pilchards are dumped in the ocean daily now. Its terrible for the guy, and his family. but what to do, we surfed today, despite all the sightings, in inco surf, lots of sitting around. Crazy really.

yorkessurfer, 1385284211

Your probably right maddog, I just read the that on the wall in there! You can see the headline in the background. But I think that Dion Gilmore was a bit of a shonk? Never let the truth get in the way of a good story hey? Anyway feeling for the surfers in SW WA. What next?

udo, 1385285836

deepseacreatures.org has pics of gilmores and alf deans pointers and a 20ft monster caught off Philip island.

freeride76, 1385289347

Yeah, that Phillip Island white was road showed around by Vic Hislop.

RIP Chris Boyd. Deepest sympathy to the family.

Food for juvenile whites : aus salmon; increasing. Seals; increasing.

kellyslater, 1385303630

I was there not far from when in happened, a dude came running from a long way away to warn us, (cheers man/legend.) everyone came in, and was pretty heavy situation when crew were told what happened.

Rip

Craig, 1385322075

Yeah, that Phillip Island one is just stupidly big! Scary :o

RIP Chris.

blak, 1385340002

RIP

stunet, 1385340960

Chris Boyd originally came from the Sunshine Coast. Local photographer, Jack Dekort, said Chris' "enthusiastic presence was infectious, with a grin ear to ear that will be missed dearly."

Couple of photos of Chris surfing:

Craig, 1385434979

Interesting quotes from this article yesterday http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-25/authorities-attempt-to-catch-shark-involved-in-fatal-attack/5114356

Tom Innes is calling for a cull but the paper has then grouped in the Margaret River Board Rider Club with him.. "The Margaret River Boardriders Club has called for a cull of all sharks over three metres as a result of the attack."

There are also a couple of other locals quoted at wanting a cull.

This debate comes up all the time but I reckon most surfers understand they're stepping into the sharks terriotry and hence take that risk on board.

To call for a cull just for out own selfish reasons is poor form I reckon.

indo-dreaming, 1385465112

[quote=Craig]

Yeah, that Phillip Island one is just stupidly big! Scary :o

wellymon, 1385507556

Let Vic get it, I reckon.
They're like terrorists, get the main one and it mite slow them down a little..?

I think that one was caught by Vic, 2.133 tonnes hows the SWL on that fishing twine, pretty impressive.

simba, 1385523889

Correct me if im wrong but i heard there were two GWs?Wouldnt be the first time.

nochaser, 1385549159

RIP

Don't know where I read it but the netting off east coast Newcastle to the Gong nets 6 whites per year on average and they are always the same size. Juveniles at Stockton beach haven't graduated to the bigger things on the menu still eating fish, rays ect…. sub 3m white sharks

southey, 1385550605

simba , your not getting confused with Brad who was taken very closeby ( noiseys ) in 2005?
that was definitely two whites , one large >4m and one < 3m ...?

superflyte, 1385553408

Yeah, Brad was 2004. A White and a Bronze, from memory. I lost a best mate to a 6m white in WA in 2005. We had actually surfed Lefty's 6 days before he was taken - further up the coast. I feel for his family and friends.

Still a tough call for me, particularly in an open ocean break, even after 8-1/2 years.

southey, 1385557638

yeah Geoff .? I Barely knew him , but mates mourned his loss heavily .

From what people told me , he was on the first stop of a New gig , and pretty much jumped straight over board after anchoring to snorkel . And was gone shortly after ( they didn't find a trace ) . Some estimated it to be > 6m . Plays on ya mind , especially alone and at offshore locales .

superflyte, 1385603345

Yep. I won't go into too much detail, but it swam right past a group of snorkelers to single him out. It was as wide as a small car. I have many friends still in the boating industry, who say they've never seen this many sharks. If you're on Facebook, there is a good discussion on the "People who share the ocean" page about what could be done.

KA from WA, 1385607714

I've been using a ESDS (Hawaiian Shark Shield) for the last year & a half for surfing down south.
So far so good, although looking at those 3 to 5 metre great whites I dont know how they will perform.

udo, 1385609936

ESDS shark deterrent test ,vimeo and the vid on there web site - not very convincing
anyone see the shark /orca show on the a.b.c. a few weeks ago, with a large white purposely ramming a tinnie with the intentions of getting at the scientists on board ,wild stuff, sorry any small elec current will not stop one these fuckers in attack mode.

simba, 1385615588

I agree with udo,they cant guarantee shark shields will work all the time and i think if its your turn and one has you lined up nothing is going to stop it.They should be testing ( maybe they have) orca noise,there one natural enemy.

grug, 1385625390

The 'dead shark odour' they use in that documentary that Simba refers to above seems to have serious potential… Watch 'The Whale that Ate Jaws' on youtube.

The scientists are still not entirely sure why and how every last one of the 100 or so whites all disappeared from the Farrallon's directly following the orca killing one of them. But they observed exactly the same thing a few years later when another pod of Orca's rocked up. One of the tagged whites hightailed it to 500 metres and pretty much followed the bottom of the ocean all the way to Hawaii… That is a pretty damn serious flight instinct. It could be assumed that all of the other whites did something similar cause none of them came back until the next year like normal… foregoing their yearly sealion buffet.

It is hard to believe that the 'death odour' could be detected by all the sharks in the area so i would say it is more likely a mix of the odour and the Orca sounds that relayed the danger to all of the whites. Still, the effect of the synthesised 'death odour' on the lemon shark and reef sharks in a feeding frenzy is intense and immediate… If that works for whites then some of that in a slow drip release from something on your board or legs could be very effective. Mixed with Orca sound stations in particular spots and you might send em all back to SA, VIC, QLD, NZ and South Africa… Now if it was super effective and every coast started doing it what would happen then?? Maybe they would work out that it was all a ruse after awhile? If it was too effective it could actually effect breeding and feeding and damage the population…

Research time…

I wonder also if the death odour effect makes nets and buoyed baits more effective when there are dead sharks rotting away in and on them?! Removing the carcasses might be counter-productive in terms of keeping sharks away?

3-for-9, 1385630894

Very sad. When we finally do something that helps people avoid shark attacks, whatever that is, it won't mean much to the family and friends of those that have already been killed.

The last thing they remember isn't that they are doing what they love most, rather it is unimaginable fear, pain and anger. That's the worst thing about all this.

simba, 1385631062

Yeah Grug,your on the money mate the only thing about the Death Odour theory is that Great whites sometimes attack there own when there hooked by fishermen so you would think that it could be more the presence of the orcas that made them hightail it.On another level i think gws are quite intellegent more so than we give them credit for and apparently can dive to great depths feeding on giant squid just as sperm whales do by raising there blood temperature to combat the cold at those depths.So i wonder if the sperm whales are there other arch enemy?As Grug said more Research is needed.

sunshine, 1385635811

dont rely on dead shark odour to "deter" sharks !. apparrently it needs to be ROTTEN shark odour ,which can infact REPELL sharks.
synthetic equivalents of this chemical are available
but unfortunately its toxic to all other aquatic species .not sure how well this would work out.

mothart, 1385636247

A year or two ago, some shark researcher was on ABC radio and said pointers don't like black & white stripes. He said they didn't know why and more work was needed.
I didn't think of killer whales, but maybe there is a connection.
At the time I painted a basic zebra spray on the bottom of the board I always ride at the point, and lately on my flippers and wetsuit (didn't work that well).
It's amazing how well a placebo can get you though a spooky surf.

southey, 1385637931

thats fine mothy ,
but looking like a Zebra . you would probably be taken down by a lion before you the left land .
either that or schools kids would walk all over ya . :)

grug, 1385648745

That's interesting sunshine… if the substance was used on a slow drip I doubt it would affect other sea life too much? … but could keep a shark away from getting too close to a line up??

I remember the zebra pattern thing being talked about in another similar thread last year and there is a company selling specific patterns for the bottom of boards? south african maybe? Fish rely heavily on particular pattern recognition for many different behaviour cues. It if it really does work then it could be related to Orcas…. or it could be something entirely different…?

tell you what though, if I find myself in WA with pumping waves then you'll still only see me out there if I have a zebra pattern on my board, rotten shark juice all over my wettie and a mini waterproof stereo taped to my leg screaming orca attack songs…

The more interesting question in all of this is why are GW's attacking humans more frequently in WA than ever before. I really don't think it can be explained by the 'more surfers in the water' argument. It would be happening everywhere if that was the case. Something has changed over there in the last 5-7 years.

simba, 1385666014

Yeah Grug where on the same wave length here cause im wondering if its a terratorial thing or a big old shark doing its yearly rounds thats done it before cause gws are breeding up eveywhere not just wa.Talking to a diver the other day who saw a 4 meter one in 10ft water at station creek nth coffs and says hes had 6 encounters over the last few years around the islands.Years ago it was rare to hear about sightings but thats all changed.As for the stripe theory they base it on pilot fish which are the little fish that swim around sharks and sea snakes ,lion fish,blue ringed octopus etc which show very visible stripes to advertise do not eat me,im poison.

Craig, 1385670053

[quote=southey]thats fine mothy , but looking like a Zebra . you would probably be taken down by a lion before you the left land . either that or schools kids would walk all over ya . :)[/quote]

simba, 1385671132

yeah its been done with bait bags different colours and stripes and stripes and stripes got looked at but not attacked.

mothart, 1385671581

Haven't seen too many lions on this savanna, but I am only new to town.
Took me awhile to get school kid thing, bit slow this morning (well always).
Don't know if the spray does anything, except give me a false sense of security, that's fine, it doesn't do any harm.
As for helping train the pointers at Neptune, I'd prefer they didn't.

Craig, 1385671733

Haha, not train them but see if it they stay away from the stripes/colours.

southey, 1385677000

for me the biggest change in the last 10 years would have been the re-colonisation of the Sea lions / fur seals back into old spots from perhaps 100 years or more before . and since lefties is so popular that might be considered by whites as a new seal colony .
so for me its simple that in the past they have probably bypassed that area in their migration , but now they are more often dropping in to say hello...... in their own way , unfortunately their " mouthing " is far more fatal that some east coast bronzies .

reecen, 1385684219

Boutique seal skin moccasin and sharktooth jewelry shops sound awesome, perhaps have an adjoining café that specializes in surf and turf seal steaks topped with a slab of pointer fillet.
This would would really add to the already existing farmhouse shops and local produce in the region.

mothart, 1385688818

I reckon they are training the pointers down at Neptune, Craig.
Fair enough if they interrupt the sharks daily habits or goings on for real research or study (can the results be legit if they have done anything but observe the animal?), but chuming the water constantly, so a few people can make a lot of money, and a couple more can get some expensive thrills, must have some sort of effect on their behavior.
If you are going to protect a wild animal, can you then fuck with it's routine to make money?

Craig, 1385689636

Totally agree Moth, I don't condone the chumming and attracting of sharks with burley for tourism.

Sure if they come across them naturally that's OK, but then they won't be able to guarantee a dive/viewing.



I'm against the shark diving by those methods.

wellymon, 1385692804

Most big game fishermen chum up as well.

reecen, 1385698879

True but most big game fisherman don't go to the same spot time after time after time and pour blood and fish chunks into the water for hours on end and then throw humans into the water.

KA from WA, 1385699042

Speaking to a local shark fisherman recently and he thinks we should have a black & white check design (300mm squares) on the bottom of our boards. His reasoning is that there is nothing in nature that has this design and the sharks would be confused by it.

yorkessurfer, 1385699376

On a clear day I can see the South Neptune Islands from the top of the headlands where I surf and I'd prefer they didn't chum up and cage dive out there! But we haven't had the problems that SW WA has had so far?
Do you live somewhere with a White Pointer problem reecen?

Craig, 1385699831

That's amazing YS.

You could see the Yorke Peninsula from Flinders Uni back in Adelaide on a clear day (good 70km) and also the Hummocks on rare occasions which is 100km away.

Crazy you can see the Neptunes though, always thought they were quite a distance away, but in fact same distant from Adelaide straight across to the YP.

yorkessurfer, 1385700361

@craig it's usually from Westcape Headland in summer when clear and calm. It looks like a faint blue silhouette out beyond Wedge Island. There's several islands in the group. One of the old locals was up there with me one day and I said "what are those islands?". He's like "that's the Neptunes".
Freaky to think they filmed the scenes from Jaws right there! Wouldn't take long for a White to swim across from there to my little playground that's for sure!

thermalben, 1385700463

I thought they filmed the Jaws footage at Dangerous Reef?

(although that's just another twelve minutes on the Mr Chompy express current)

reecen, 1385700480

Yeah I am from WA.
I don't really have an opinion either way on the cage diving, if the sharks are already there it probably makes little difference but if the sharks are being attracted and then held there with burley for longer then they would normally stay who knows what that does?
I am no expert but I reckon numbers have built again there is probably extra competition for food and space and now the big fuckers are more numerous and venturing further afield and eating things along the way.
They seem to do all sorts of bizarre journeys but some of the tagged ones have come from SA all the way across the bottom into WA and offshore from NW cape where they hang around for a while and then head back to SA.
The spot is exactly the same place and time that we used to go and chase schooling yellowfin tuna.
They think with their bellys, just gotta hope your not dangling your legs in front of them when they come through.
What I do know is that after three generations of family members bobbing around on the ocean all day only one of us ever saw a GW and now talking to the guys still out there they are seeing them regularly.

udo, 1385700964

yorkey, cannot believe the foot of your peninsula has been so lucky ,with the deaths in the gulf over the years and with aldinga reef, k.i. cape jervis so close other than the channel 9 cameraman windsurfing on the other side of the foot, you have no attacks, with the annual summer squid and snapper run up the gulf you fellas are only 25 miles or so away ? sitting way out at chi's or pm's or tressies on a big day id be shitting bricks........do you get many sightings of pointers ? looking at the map ,fuck you guys are right there in the middle.
probably less than 25miles from the cape decoudic chomp.

yorkessurfer, 1385701499

There was one hanging around Pondie a few years back. This seal with a chunk missing out of it was hanging on the beach between Pondie and Richards. It wasn't dead though. And just metres out beyond the shorebreak was this White just doing laps hoping the fucker would go back into the water! Needless to say we didn't surf Pondie for a while.

I figured you might be from down that way reecen. Must be nerve racking paddling out to those bombie's south of Margrets chasing those big waves you like to surf.
Most of the waves down my way break fairly close to shore although last weekends attack proves that being close to shore provides a false sense of security as you can get taken anywhere!

thermalben, 1385702092

Strangely Yorkes is one place where I feel quite comfortable in the water. Surfed almost everywhere on my own at some point down there although my favourite wave (Tressies) is a little spooky - was chatting to a bloke many years ago (can't remember who), and he'd done quite a bit of shark fishing in the region. He reckons there's an underwater ridge that stretches from PMs down past Ella Rock and over to Dustbowl, and there are hundreds of sharks that wait near the ridge for fish. As a consequence PMs is one of the more sharky breaks on the peninsula (so he said anyway).

reecen, 1385702852

The underwater topography makes all the difference Ben.
The fish like the structure but the currents also bump into it and help concentrate the sea life.
There is a spot we surf that is on the apex of a very deep to very shallow V shaped reef and it is like a magnet for sea creatures, been buzzed by a couple of very big toothy fish there in the past.

yorkessurfer, 1385702925

Miff the surf artist got chased in from Tressies by a big one while surfing by himself on his birthday a few years ago. His misses was watching from the cliff as he scrambled across the inside reef calling her name!

PM's is spooky but I love to surf there by myself sometimes as it's such a beautiful wave and if there's no-one to surf it with I can't help myself. Probably a dumb thing to do but!

thermalben, 1385703120

[quote=reecen]There is a spot we surf that is on the apex of a very deep to very shallow V shaped reef and it is like a magnet for sea creatures[/quote]Sounds like a magnet for surfers too!

reecen, 1385704954

The shark factor there is so heavy that for some people it is like similar poles repulsing each other.

yorkessurfer, 1385784961

Holy fuck! http://m.smh.com.au/national/surfer-killed-in-shark-attack-near-coffs-harbour-20131130-2yi51.html

Craig, 1385786338

Yeah, so sad, can't believe it :(

simba, 1385796365

Funny used to surf early all the time years ago especially the pre dawn sessions but boy has that changed in the last few years.Still surf on my own a lot and now living around coffs thought that was a fairly safe bet .until today.Boy does your way of thinking change when it happens close to home.

cycd, 1386197995

Spoke to a mate from Yalls last night ..... one of his mates from home had a medium sized pointer come up under him and bump him/his board yesterday at boneyards.... Booooooooooo!

thermalben, 1386198698

Christ. That's scary.

ben-colyer, 1386211829

Pretty interesting reading through all this and what Blind Boy has had to contribute.
Surfing at locations known to be not too far from Great White buffet's always keeps the Jaws theme playing in the back of the head. Having a look through some statistics on attacks, dawn and dusk don't appear to feature, ( with the exception of a couple of dawn swimmers and Ski paddlers at Cottesloe a few years back) rather from 10am till about 4pm. I'd also be a bit apprehensive in WA in October and November. August and September seem popular for Whites in South Oz.
I have always felt the most uneasy when I've been out on a calm day that is overcast, grey, and distinguishing the horizon is difficult. Years back I would sneak early pre dawn sessions at Daly's before work. Never gave too much thought back then about noah's.

uncle_leroy, 1386373110

The sad thing is at this day and age when we spend millions and millions of dollars looking for galaxies and other planets that probably don't exist, yet we cannot even calculate the population of a 5m, 4 tonne fish!!
There needs to be a serious, and I mean very serious attempt at tagging hundreds if not thousands of these great whites.
Send a pro boat (not fisheries because they have no idea on how to get the job done) down along the south coast, Walpole to Esperance and tag the absolute crap out of them so we have at least some idea about their movements, why they move, travels from east to west, west to sth africa, spawning times etc
Set up a heap of recievers and make the information public so we can make out own assumptions on the data instead of keeping it locked up behind political red tape.
Only once we have all this data available, only then can we very possibly sit back talk about controlling numbers. If there is a stable and larger population than previously thought, why not put a few to sleep if they are hanging in close around popular surf breaks.
Don't agree with cage diving either. Surely the sharks must associate boats with a free feed which is not good when 70% of ones water time is involved in jumping off a boat or ski for a surf, crays or a spear.

udo, 1386374167

cage dive boats out of pt Lincoln in the earlys days would not guarantee seeing a white shark.........these days they pretty much guarantee they will be at boat the by the time you have your wetsuit on.....if no whites appear one operator gives a half of your day trip cost in credit ,for your next trip.

used to the sound of the boat motors and props and associate the noise with an easy feed ? for sure.

how long until they associate the hum of a jetski with a easy feed ?

indo-dreaming, 1386376052

[quote=uncle_leroy]The sad thing is at this day and age when we spend millions and millions of dollars looking for galaxies and other planets that probably don't exist, yet we cannot even calculate the population of a 5m, 4 tonne fish!!
There needs to be a serious, and I mean very serious attempt at tagging hundreds if not thousands of these great whites.
Send a pro boat (not fisheries because they have no idea on how to get the job done) down along the south coast, Walpole to Esperance and tag the absolute crap out of them so we have at least some idea about their movements, why they move, travels from east to west, west to sth africa, spawning times etc
Set up a heap of recievers and make the information public so we can make out own assumptions on the data instead of keeping it locked up behind political red tape.
Only once we have all this data available, only then can we very possibly sit back talk about controlling numbers. If there is a stable and larger population than previously thought, why not put a few to sleep if they are hanging in close around popular surf breaks.
Don't agree with cage diving either. Surely the sharks must associate boats with a free feed which is not good when 70% of ones water time is involved in jumping off a boat or ski for a surf, crays or a spear.[/quote]

Well said...

Cage diving and purposely attracting these sharks to boats etc should be illegal, it only causes the sharks to associate people with food and cause the sharks to lose any fear of humans or boats etc (if they have any to start with?)

Where I live Mako shark fishing is popular during the summer months and boats burley up the water sometimes only a kilometre or two offshore, IMO another disaster waiting to happen, there should also be laws that prevent this happening so close to coastlines where people are in the water.

udo, 1386378478

in January 2014 w.a. scientists will broadcast killer whale screams through underwater speakers.
luring tiger and great white sharks to an area the replicated sound of killer whale screams will be played underwater to determine how the predatory sharks react, after watching the a.b.c doco on orcas recently and how the presence and screams of orcas cleared the area of white sharks this could be a breakthrough in shark deterrent.

EDIT; this proposed testing may have been halted due to the effect on non targeted species....dolphins e.t.c

braithy, 1386385080

Well now is no time to be worrying about dolphins!

Press on, I say!

udo, 1386488833

pic on liveleak of a 3m shark landed by an angler at dunsborough last week cleanly bitten in half by a monster shark .

uncle_leroy, 1386493960

[quote=udo]pic on liveleak of a 3m shark landed by an angler at dunsborough last week cleanly bitten in half by a monster shark .[/quote]
haha
media will do anything for a story


Was posted originally on someones facebook page and captured a few thousand km's west of WA, off the coast of Mozambique actually. Funny how a few emails later it happened down in Dunsborough.

Bazaruto is a sandy island located approximately 80 kilometres southeast of the mouth of the Save River, Mozambique. It is the largest island in the Bazaruto Archipelago and in the Bazaruto National Park

The media love it.
same as this one apparently eaten by a large tiger shark
http://www.laterallinemedia.com/hammerhead/
guys later claimed to just hacked its head off with a fishing knife and made up a story that went global

southey, 1386500173

yeah seen that shot before . looks convincing .

If it is real , the Hammerhead must have been huge itself

quokka, 1386504596

I'm with you Unc, WA govt need to get off their fat cat arses, pull their fingers out and do something urgently. Tag the shit out of the GWS's whether that's via Ocearch or other means I don't care. If they are not willing to do this then manage the population via commercial fishing licences.

udo, 1388302185

a 5mtr pointer spotted by chopper 100mts off a perth metro beach this morning ......when does the drum baiting start ?
edit / jan 10th - 72 baited hooks ........the cull begins.

udo, 1388453994

sharksheild have be given a huge $$$ government grant to develop electronic repellant surfboard fins ....WTF its proven the electronic repellant does not stop the maneaters.

OLD MATE, 1388547758

Orcas are the top ocean predator, not only are they huge and highly intelligent but they eat white pointers for breakfast that's why the sharks bail. The sharks poo poo their panties and swim away as fast as possible like anything that knows its prey for something bigger and smarter. Just have blow up orcas with stereos playing orca screams at every beach...

southey, 1388548688

until said blowup Orca's , attract real Orca's , for some Orca Fun . Ornot .

damien.auksorius, 1401085317

hi my name is damien auksorius ,, why is it that when a person dies from a shark attack that people get upset ,, and when millions of people die each year from cigarette smoking this is okay ,, sharks are only predators looking for fish to eat not people ,