Before 1999, not one surfer in Western Australia
had ever been killed by a Great White. By 2025, ten surfers had
lost their lives.
Same ol story, same theatre, same tears, same croc-teared
politicians fronting the media yesterday when another surfer was disappeared by a
Great White shark in West Oz, the 25th fatal attack on a surfer
in Australia by a White since the fish was listed “vulnerable” in
1999.
The Great White attacks surfer
story has now become so commonplace it was barely
reported by the mainstream press yesterday, a cursory paragraph
buried deep beneath the stories of house prices and panicked
stories about Donald Trump and his razor-gang. The Guardian didn’t
even bother covering it.
This, despite a young man being disappeared in front of his
girlfriend and a dozen other surfers by a “massive” Great White
shark. Gone. His ruined surfboard floating in a pool of blood his
tombstone.
Whenever I’m with the it’s-their-ocean crowd, I tell ’em: you
gotta understand. This is only the beginning. In a
generation nobody will want their kids paddling out into the blue
when fatal attacks by Great Whites become a weekly sideshow and
not, as in the case recently, every two or three months.
For a little perspective, before 1999, in Western Australia not
one surfer had ever been killed by a Great White. Zero.
After protection, ten.
In NSW, one surfer was killed by a Great White in the eighties;
after protection, seven.
South Australia, a known Great White superhighway so attacks
weren’t surprising, two surfers were killed pre-protection, after,
seven, including four in the last year.
Queensland is the outlier here.
One before, one after, a legacy of scrupulous shark netting
although readers will remember Nick Slater being hit by a Great
White after a build-up of sand had moved the sandbar so far out
surfers were sitting adjacent to ‘em.
As Longtom, RIP, reported,
“The nets were set, along with an array of eight drum-lines. The
nets, just landward and to the north of where Slater was surfing,
the drum-lines array, just seaward of the Snapper Rocks line-up.
That left a corridor aimed directly at Slater of around three or
four hundred metres in width in which a White shark swam before
attacking the man.
Interestingly, no fatal hits by Whites on surfers in Victoria or
Tasmania.
However you slice it, it’s an almost eight hundred percent
increase in Great White attacks on surfers since the then
conservative government listed ‘em as “vulnerable” in
1999.
The listing prohibited deliberate killing, injuring, or trading
of Great Whites, with penalties up to $110,000 or two years
imprisonment, though incidental catches by fishers required
reporting and release where possible.
