It has been a confronting and devastating year with a 12-year-old killed by a shark in Sydney and another shark attack in Coogee over the weekend. The NSW government has said there is nothing off the table in response to the latest shark incident. But it is vital that we don’t just start going out there and randomly culling sharks.
Some sharks are more dangerous to humans, in particular bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks. But the reality is that most sharks are smaller, eat fish and molluscs and are key to keeping our marine environments healthy and not a danger to humans.
It is horrible and confronting when someone is attacked by a shark, let alone the devastating impact of losing someone you love to a shark attack. But the reality is that it is rare to be bitten by a shark.
‘Worldwide there are about 70-100 attacks per year, with only 7-10 being fatal,’ according to Shark Allies.
The reality is that the ocean is dangerous, it has predators like sharks, but it also has jellyfish, rips, drownings and other dangerous animals. In fact Shark Allies points out that ‘Jellyfish are responsible for 15-30 times more deaths each year than all unprovoked shark attacks worldwide.’
However, shark attacks have been on the rise and this ‘coincides with an increasing human population, more people visiting beaches, a rise in the popularity of water-based fitness and recreational activities and people accessing previously isolated coastal areas,’ according to the research paper ‘Changing patterns of shark attacks in Australian waters’ by John West and research by CSIRO.
Also overfishing in waters further out is pushing sharks ‘inshore towards more populated or traversed waters in search of food’ according to RSPCA, South Australia.
The reality is that in Australia we already have extensive nets and drumlines along coastal waters which represent a serious threat to a wide range of marine animals. This includes endangered sea turtles, whales, dolphins, rays and other animals.
In reality the biggest killer of sharks is fishing, with an estimated 73 million to 100 million sharks killed globally every year according to the Shark Research Institute, with bull sharks one of the species targeted for their fins.
While the great white shark is not generally fished, it is nonetheless listed as vulnerable.
According to research, shark culling does not reduce the number of unprovoked shark interactions.
In a 2019 court case against lethal culling in the Great Barrier Reef (HSI v QDAF and GBRMPA) by Humane World for Animals ‘one of the arguments upon which the case was won, was that shark culling has no impact on swimmer safety. In fact, there was even arguments to be made that culling can increase the risk for swimmers’.
Great white sharks don’t just hang around one area, they are highly migratory and swim vast distances, bull sharks frequent rivers and estuaries in NSW and Qld, while tiger sharks prefer warmer northern waters (www.firstaidpro.com.au).
There are a range of more humane ways to manage shark/human interactions, from increasing shark spotting and drone capacities, shark awareness programs, sonar systems, eco-barriers, tagging, tracking and alert systems, active and passive electrical repellents. But at the end of the day unless you eliminate sharks, or ban people from going in the water, there will always be the risk of a shark-human encounter. When you go into the water you are going into their natural habitat. The reality is that you are more likely to drown, get caught in a rip or die from a jellyfish sting than you are from a shark interaction.
Aslan Shand, editor
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