Sharks
In the era of The Real Julia, a cricket captain entrapped by media trainers and wall-to-wall corporate spokespeople, you don’t hear many bullshit-free interviews.
As a little summer refreshment, listen to this chat this morning on ABC Radio 702 with Rick Parsons from North Avoca Surf Life Saving Club.
Last night there was a SHARK ATTACK! on his beach. Thankfully the 28-year-old surfer who was bitten on the arm is ok, but standard precautions were this morning carried out, including closing the beach and helicopter patrols.
Mr Parsons sounds like the sort of bloke you want around in a crisis. Crisis? What crisis?
Quint would be pleased. The professional shark-hunter from Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws would raise a glass and toast the WA government’s decision to authorise the destruction of the shark responsible for a diver’s death at Rottnest Island last week.
And just like in Jaws, there’s community hysteria, a loss of reasoned thought, at the idea there is a man-eater waiting in the shallows off the coast.
This reaction is admirable and understandable. The loss of a life through misadventure is tragic. Often the casualty is in their prime and their loved ones are always devastated. Our unreserved sympathies go out to those left behind in what must be the worst imaginable circumstances. No act or sentiment can ever fill the hole left in their lives.
Continue reading "The myth of the “man-eater” is a great white lie" »
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Danielle says:
Humans in life are at risk all the time as all other creatures in nature are also. Every time you jump in your car you could be killed. You fly in a plane it may crash. You’re at work and it may be your last day you breathe. You are… Read more »
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MarkSdaughter says:
Can you please go diving around south east Western Australia sometime soon please. Read more »
Political correctness rules our lives and while I’m all for equal opportunity, why not extend it to some of the creatures that share our great country?
Why is it considered acceptable for one or two species to regularly claim human lives, while another is hunted down and killed in retribution? Or a whole colony culled, after what might be little more than a nip?
If you are unlucky enough to be eaten or bitten in the sea, you are intruding, you knowingly took the risk and the chances are very high that the protected predator responsible will be allowed to swim off in search of its next feed.
Continue reading "This specific dingo did not eat any babies" »
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Echosmum says:
They ARE the Australian wolf Canis Lupis Dingo (Lupis as in WOLF)- NOT a dog Canis Familiaris. They have been here 18,000 years Nick. When the apex predator is removed from the environment cascading extinctions of other natives follow as mesopredators fill the void- this is happening Australia wide, loss… Read more »
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Echosmum says:
The child was unattended in an area with dingoes,death adders,1000’s of 4x4’s, and of course the ocean. The mother and nanna were unaware that she was not with them TOTALLY UNAWARE The barge operator saw the child and was screaming from his cabin at the many people on the beach… Read more »
Some people get all the luck. Paul Welsh is surfing with his son, gets bitten (sorry, that should read ‘savagely menaced’) by a docile and mostly harmless Wobbegong and out come the cheque books.
Before a stitch is even sewn, he’s been snapped up by a television network and an early morning trip to the beach is now a big earner. Well done mate. If reports on the websites are true, you’ve hit the Shark-pot.
Shame it was only a Wobbegong. Imagine what you’d get for an actual Great White.
Continue reading "How to punch a shark and win the jackpot" »
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Stan Wills says:
I’ve just fished a meter long White-crowned snake out of my pool , and set it loose .Maybe I should call some tv station and tell them it was an anaconda sizing me up .....could be worth some money Read more »
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Cameron says:
Every shark is a white pointer these days. And every snake a taipan. If the media had its way they would breed and release them to keep the numbers up! Will we now have a posse out shooting wobbegongs? Next time I go near our frog pond I will have… Read more »
Well it’s the silly season and sharks are in the news again, big time.
This summer in central Queensland, they are competing with box jellyfish and irukandji for the mantle of scariest critters in the sea, while on land, tourists at Seventeen Seventy have been attacked by a crazed kamikaze flying fox.
That small tourism hot spot marks the place where Captain James Cook put ashore to take on fresh water, but this week three tourists were bitten by a bat later found to have been infected by the potentially deadly lyssavirus.
Continue reading "What you don’t see can’t hurt you, unless it’s a big shark" »
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Mikko says:
My favourite beach five minutes from home promises kilometers of uninterrupted golden sand, but requires wading or swimming across a tidal creek for access. The authorities have done the right thing by erecting signs warning of strong rips, marine stingers and crocodiles. I’ll have to suggest they add bull sharks… Read more »
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~Rumpleteazer~ says:
I love flake in a light batter with a sprinkle of rock salt and a squeeze of lemon. Oh! they are protected now, what will I eat.? I know, some lovely frozen barramundi from a little village in Vietnam or perhaps some healthy and delicious frozen Nile Perch. The days… Read more »
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