Dean Jefferys, Mullumbimby.
In response to George Greenough’s question ‘what is being done to protect the dolphins from great white sharks?’ (Letters, January 11), I would say, nothing, as dolphins are doing a pretty good job of protecting themselves and evolving with other marine life for millions of years.
Maybe a great white shark will pick off a sick one occasionally as one of sharks’ ‘jobs’ is to eat sick fish and keep the oceans healthy and evolving as they have for the last 400 million years. Now that sharks are being killed at over 100 million a year we are seeing marine ecosystems getting out of balance and even collapsing as the top predator is exterminated by man.
‘Great white cash cow’? Really, George, the only cash to be made from great white sharks is for tourist operators to show a dead one in a shark net to pretend that their beaches are safe, so tourists can spend money.
I am concerned that people like George and Neil Cameron, the president of Byron Bay Board Riders, that have such a history and relationship with the ocean, would suggest we need to kill the great white shark or other sharks to feel safe to surf or go in the water. This anthropocentric view of nature, that it has to be controlled or destroyed, has contributed to the current environmental disaster we are in.
And what sort of example are they sending to the new generation of surfers and ocean lovers, just kill anything that is a possible threat rather than developing a relationship with nature and working with it? The shark netting program is a perfect example – 364 marine creatures died in NSW last year in these nets to satisfy humanity’s fear of nature. The dead included dolphins, turtles, and endangered sharks.
The crazy thing about all these deaths is that there is no evidence that these shark nets, that are usually only 100 metres long, actually make people safer. Many of the targeted sharks were caught on the beach side of the nets as they were leaving. Besides, there are many non-lethal alternatives that are much more effective. Some people are being hoodwinked.
Last week while surfing in the Brunswick River mouth I utilised a technique taught to me by world-renowned animal communicator Anna Breytenbach. I sent a telepathic message to any sharks that may be in the area that I am their friend, I am not food or competition.
I calmed my energy, breath and heart rate and I transmuted any lingering fear I may have around sharks. I said in my mind to any possible nearby shark, could you please keep a small distance away, and we can both be here in relative harmony with each other. Google ‘Anna Breytenbach sharks’ for the full video I did with her in Byron.
I know there are many who would doubt that sharks and humans are able to communicate, yet I would suggest there is no harm in utilising these techniques next time you’re in the ocean. It is certainly no more fanciful than thinking shark nets will protect you.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
