Northern Beaches - Shark circles surfer

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KymE
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Northern Beaches - Shark circles surfer

Post by KymE » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:02 am

Missed the main news last night. Channel 7 had a few news flashes and they said at one point about the sea planes may be coming back (I only posted a query about that one before Christmas!) :wink:

One report said "A shark circled a surfer on the Northern Beaches". Later report said Monday morning. :shock:

Does anyone know where abouts - which beach - any more details???

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roosters
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Post by roosters » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:13 am

is it just me or are there definitely more shark sightings and "near misses" this summer than previously. or is there just more media attention? (check the front page of todays tele)

and i thought sharks were a dying breed

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Post by Beanpole » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:30 am

Has Vic Hislop gone into retirement?

Cactus2099
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Post by Cactus2099 » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:30 am

It was North Curly. Check out todays daily for details.
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ric_vidal
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Post by ric_vidal » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:32 am

Rockin' Ron wrote:...Nth Curly...was probably heading there for a late today....Bombo...was there three days in a row between Chrissy and New Year....Mollymook...in that area for two weeks at the end of February. Can't they all just faark off to somewhere I'm not going?
R&R you are a marked man...Imagenow which current takes me to Mollymook again :?: :twisted:

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Post by Nick Carroll » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:36 am

That poor woman does everything wrong at North Straddie, swims with a dog at dusk in known shark territory, dies horribly as a result.

So all the Usual Suspects turn sharks into the Weekly Terror, using her death as their jump-off point. The shark plane guy uses it as a way of trying to gee up his business. The leader of the NSW Opposition says he's concerned because he swims at BONDI every morning.

The only person quoted in the papers who seems relatively unflustered is the surfer from North Curly who actually SAW one.

Face it -- we surf and swim in cohabitation with sharks all the fricken time. Some species are low in numbers right now, but that don't include the bronze whaler or the bull shark. Dive off any bombie reef in Sydney and you'll see both almost automatically.

It seems to me that excessive fear of sharks is unnecessary and advocating mass elimination, etc, is pure self indulgence. And preying on said fears in the wake of a tragic death like that of the woman on Straddie ... well that's something else again.

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murrum
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Post by murrum » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:56 am

They just ran the George Bass (surf boat race from BBay to Eden) down here. Racers and crew were all frothing at the number of sightings, plenty of great whites apparently, reasonable size too and more sightings than usual.

Wouldnt have been looking forward to treading water waiting for your changeover 500m-1k offshore. :shock: :shock:
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Shaunm
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Post by Shaunm » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:05 pm

Should start a rumour that sharks don't go in between the flags - keep all the swimmers away from the surfers' area!
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dangersean
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Post by dangersean » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:10 pm

I was out at south narra last week when a clubby in an IRB screamed past telling us he was chasing off a bronze whaler... Also paddled out at Mona Vale on saturday to have the other lads already out say they had just spotted a bronze whaler too..

I tend to not give it too much thought... the way i see it, i've been in the water with 'em for years... getting munched by one is like being hit by lightning or winning lotto... rarely happens to anybody you know. Especially since there has been just ONE fatality in Sydney in the last 75 years...
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Post by longbum » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:11 pm

Shaunm wrote:Should start a rumour that sharks don't go in between the flags - keep all the swimmers away from the surfers' area!
hahahahahhaaa

serious tho, do you really think there are more sharks now than 10 years ago ?? I DOUBT IT !!!!
this will be all forgotten about next week as soon as the media find another story, just like the cronulla riots, chapeele corby, guy that got hung in singapore, etc etc......

deal with it, we play in their home.

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Post by zzz » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:30 pm

how many people you reckon get into the water off the northern beaches every weekend?

Probably at least 100 surfers hit the water at some time during the day at every beach, plus another hundred swimmers. So maybe 2000 people a day hitting the water in the northern beaches alone on any given summer day. Over just the three months of summer thats 50,000 potential human live baits in the water just on weekends.

How many shark attacks off the northern beaches this summer?
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Johnno
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Post by Johnno » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:37 pm

Just got back from a surf and had one swim under me today around 3m.

It was heading north ................................... :arrow:

Thing is, it's nothing unusual .................... :wink:

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Post by barstardos » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:47 pm

Zed's I think you might be undercalling the numbers a little - have been in the water lately? would've been at least 100 surfers in the water at once (not to mention swimmers and other flotsam) at Queensie - pipe last night.

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Post by zzz » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:02 pm

barstardos wrote:Zed's I think you might be undercalling the numbers a little - have been in the water lately? would've been at least 100 surfers in the water at once (not to mention swimmers and other flotsam) at Queensie - pipe last night.
yeah was being conservative and manly/queenscliff's about 3 times as crowded as the rest of the beaches - but I reckon your right - probably more like 10,000 a day in the water. Looked at the queensie/manly stretch last night and it looked like the usual zoo and hit north curly instead.
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chrisb
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Post by chrisb » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:35 pm

dangersean wrote:Especially since there has been just ONE fatality in Sydney in the last 75 years...
That was in Middle Harbour in 1963 in murky water, a bull shark's favourite territory. An aspiring actress dived in from a boat and was immediately attacked by a shark - when they pulled her back in, the shark had taken everything from the waist down.

Today's papers are scant on detail but infer that the 1963 fatality occurred at a surf beach. The last fatality at a Sydney surf beach (Manly) was around 1933.

There have been Sydney attacks but injuries have been minor eg. a spear fisherman at Queensie in 1974.
Last edited by chrisb on Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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yanks r us
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Post by yanks r us » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:39 pm

yeh the northen beaches incident was at north curly. there were camera men and a helicopter hovering real close over the water for a while.

you may be right that shark numbers havnt increased, whats more important though is that they are coming closer to the coast than ever before.

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Post by zzz » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:12 pm

Never taken any notice of a shark siren anyway but that sounds like pretty lame behaviour if true - though I think its been going on for a long time - the old shark siting in a crowded lineup on a good day to clear a few people out.

yanks - what time was the chopper at nth curly - might explain why it was relatively uncrowded in the evening. Also was a bloke stuck in the rip at sth curly (around 6:30) on his way to the diggers :-) that had to get picked up by a coupla surfers then the clubbies - possible chopper was there for that?
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