RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Cranked wrote:There have been 57 shark deaths in Sydney's harbours, beachs, bays and estuaries but none since the introduction of offshore shark netting.

What conclusions might you draw from that?

I agree with your inference that netting works but must point out that a number of shark attack deaths have occurred within Middle Harbour (eg. At Sugarloaf Point, Roseville Bridge) and other areas within the broader Sydney Harbour area since netting. Netting off the surf beaches makes the surf beaches safer but most of the harbour is not netted so there is nothing to stop a shark swimming into the harbour and attacking eg. The navy diver at Garden Island is a recent example.

..isnt there a greater presence of bullsharks in the harbor areas nevertheless?

Couple of the Sydney attacks _ North Av and Bondi, and that Redhead attack, happened on days the nets were actually at those beaches. Those trio of attacks could easily have been fatal, they weren't little nips, but fate, the gods, when your time is up it's up etc, meant the teeth missed arteries. Just read the fella at Evans Head is very lucky, apart from his hand being virtually severed, doctors found the artery in his thigh had teeth graze marks on it. Pulled a tooth out of his leg too.
Harbour' seems very attractive to bulls. Government boffins have tagged 28 of em in the harbour to 3.2m. One thing the electronic tags have shown is they leave, heading north, when the water temp drops to 19C. One of them went to Townsville, then back down to Port Stephens.

Cranked wrote:There have been 57 shark deaths in Sydney's harbours, beachs, bays and estuaries but none since the introduction of offshore shark netting.

What conclusions might you draw from that?

Sydney has very good trauma hospitals in close proximity to the busy beaches.

Yup that too.

Biggun wrote:what's a 'world class surf spot'?

I would call a 'world class surf spot' a wave that, even in the best surf regions of the world, you wouldn't turn your nose up to surf it.

A nasty thing about bull sharks is that they can tolerate almost fresh water, hence the attack at Parramatta a few years ago. Years ago a person was attacked by a bull shark in a Nicaragua fresh water lake that was sealed from the ocean.

Bull shark movements in Sydney Harbour on Australia Day 2011.

Biggun wrote:what's a 'world class surf spot'?

The ones I meant were TOS, Burleigh, Currumbin Alley, Kirra, Greenmount, Snapper, Dbah, Cabarita, Byron Bay (3 at least), Broken Head, Lennox Head, Ballina. The other dozen shall remain unnamed....

alakaboo wrote:

Cranked wrote:There have been 57 shark deaths in Sydney's harbours, beachs, bays and estuaries but none since the introduction of offshore shark netting.

What conclusions might you draw from that?

Sydney has very good trauma hospitals in close proximity to the busy beaches.

To my knowledge there has only been 2 attacks (both non fatal) in Sydney waters in the last 50 years

chrisb wrote:

Cranked wrote:There have been 57 shark deaths in Sydney's harbours, beachs, bays and estuaries but none since the introduction of offshore shark netting.

What conclusions might you draw from that?

I agree with your inference that netting works but must point out that a number of shark attack deaths have occurred within Middle Harbour (eg. At Sugarloaf Point, Roseville Bridge) and other areas within the broader Sydney Harbour area since netting. Netting off the surf beaches makes the surf beaches safer but most of the harbour is not netted so there is nothing to stop a shark swimming into the harbour and attacking eg. The navy diver at Garden Island is a recent example.

I'm only aware of 2 in Sydney waters in the last 50 years, Bondi and the one you mentioned. Do you have a source for any others?

Last fatalities were:
Just below Roseville Bridge, opposite Killarney picnic reserve, Middle Harbor, Sydney in 1960
Sugarloaf Bay, Middle Harbour, Sydney in 1963

Think I might have mentioned it, but maybe not, so I will now. To me, tagging studies are potentially worthless. Let's grab a fish (or anything else) from its natural environment, tag the fcuker, release it and track it by either hoping to recaptured it or using remote techniques. The massive assumption is that the tagged individual will behave as though it had never been tagged. I challenged that very premises during my failed post grad studies. Best I got was tagged fish behave the same as untagged fish in tank observations. Fcuk me

Cranked wrote:

chrisb wrote:

Cranked wrote:There have been 57 shark deaths in Sydney's harbours, beachs, bays and estuaries but none since the introduction of offshore shark netting.

What conclusions might you draw from that?

I agree with your inference that netting works but must point out that a number of shark attack deaths have occurred within Middle Harbour (eg. At Sugarloaf Point, Roseville Bridge) and other areas within the broader Sydney Harbour area since netting. Netting off the surf beaches makes the surf beaches safer but most of the harbour is not netted so there is nothing to stop a shark swimming into the harbour and attacking eg. The navy diver at Garden Island is a recent example.

I'm only aware of 2 in Sydney waters in the last 50 years, Bondi and the one you mentioned. Do you have a source for any others?

Last fatalities were:
Just below Roseville Bridge, opposite Killarney picnic reserve, Middle Harbor, Sydney in 1960
Sugarloaf Bay, Middle Harbour, Sydney in 1963

A kid was attacked at Avalon a couple of years ago (non-fatal). It is mentioned somewhere in these forums. A guy was bitten at Parramatta about 10 years ago while night swimming intoxicated in the Parramatta River. Also non-fatal. I just remember that one being in the news at the time but probably some googling would locate it.

As far as I'm aware both made a full recovery as their injuries were relatively minor compared to the recent NSW north coast attacks.

It is a long time, as you say over 50 years, since a fatality in Sydney waters. But I fear it is just a matter of time.

The early grey nurse shark tagging studies had a 100% fatality rate, swivel.

Since Bruce was abducted by aliens and they put that tag on him, he has never quite been the same....restless, moving from place to place but unable to find peace anywhere. He says he will swim to the end of the world to find out what did this to him.

Every creature has a 100% fatality rate eventually.

#truthbomb

@ a'boo Didn't know that, but not surprising. Techniques have advanced, but I doubt it will ever advance far enough for me to accept the results. There's a big name prof here who published in either Science or Nature about the movement or marine turtles. n equalled 1. Alfred Deakin Fellow, top of his game. Since he's been here I've wanted to have a discussion, but I'm at least smart enough to know it won't be well received

BTW, not meaning to ignore that grey nurse conservation efforts went more than slightly awry