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  • shark attack
  • BillMC
    Full Member

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/09/man-killed-in-shark-attack-at-byron-bay?CMP=fb_gu

    There must be quite a few people on here who have swam in Clarke’s or Byron Bay or surfed The Pass or The Wreck. Avoid eating prawns or peeing in the sea, do not go in at dawn or dusk, always safer in a crowd, preferably in the Friendly Railway bar and treat yourself to a pie from next door on the way home.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    More cyclists have been killed on the roads of Australia in the last 2 years than sharks in the last 300.
    More people are killed by Rip Tides each year than sharks.

    Makes news but is a very tiny risk.

    BillMC
    Full Member

    Yep, true but the fear is visceral. I don’t remember going in the sea and worrying about obesity or car accidents. My surfing buddy used to rib me for worrying about men in grey suits until his step-son was involved in a fatal shark attack.

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    Remember paddling out at Tallows beach (the other side of the headland at byron) and seeing about a 6ft shark cruising along a wave just before it broke.. I momentarily froze. Then looked at the 30 or so guys already in the water and just rationalised about a 1 in 30 chance of getting attacked even if there were to be one… Only have to be in the water with one other person and your chances are halved. Shark paranoia messes with you and its pretty irrational when you consider its way more dangerous actually driving to the beach.

    Marmoset
    Free Member

    It certainly has people paranoid about them. I must admit that I’m like a meerkat on the odd occasion that I do go down to the sea.

    I don’t agree with the drum baiting that’s going on here in WA. If you don;t like the risks then don’t go in. I’ve not heard of all bears/lynx’s/(insert animal of choice here) being shot as there’s a slight risk you’ll get jumped on when walking or riding.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Only 3 people in 2013. Cull must be working then. 😆

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Wasn’t there a fish canning plant on the north shore that attracted sharks years back?
    Swam there a lot but got scared after my friend told me how he sometimes bumped into sharks when surfing.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Makes news but is a very tiny risk.

    That list of numbers doesn’t demonstrate the risks though. The number of breast cancer deaths is 2900 out of the entire female population, thats the entire female population being female day and night, 365 days a year. The deaths through domestic violence only relate to people who are in violent relationships, although the death toll is low, those relationships are clearly very risky for the people who are actually in them, the shark related deaths is only two, but its two from only the people who go in the sea and those people are only at risk during the time they’re in the sea – far less time than they’ll spend behind the wheel I’d expect.

    Thats not to say that culls and the like are an over reaction but that list does nothing help decide what a proportionate reaction should be.

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    It does.. It shows that your chance of being killed by a shark is very small and that indiscriminately culling is a stupid over reaction

    atlaz
    Free Member

    And actually the easiest way to avoid getting killed by a shark is to not go flapping around in their habitat. If you’re that worried, maybe don;t surf rather than culling the shark population?

    fasthaggis
    Full Member

    “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”

    thered
    Full Member

    Fasthaggis is right (and soon to be independent(probably)), properly disingenious those stats but saying that, culling Sharks is f****ng idiocy.

    DezB
    Free Member

    Are they advocating a cull of fat people?

    nickjb
    Free Member

    or staff at McDonalds

    olddog
    Full Member

    You’ll not find many surfers who think shark culling is a good idea, there is an acceptance of the inherent dangers of the sport.

    You will find surfers who really don’t like commercial operations chumming to attract sharks so people can go down in shark cages and get their jollies.

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Are they advocating a cull of fat people?

    That would be like culling people who are attacked by sharks

    I think a more appropriate question is “are they advocating banning stuff that makes people fat”?

    Having said that I’m not in favour of that – or culling sharks. It’s their environment. Humans become potential shark food there.

    Danny79
    Free Member

    njee20
    Free Member

    It does.. It shows that your chance of being killed by a shark is very small and that indiscriminately culling is a stupid over reaction

    Mmm, I’m with maccruisken, it’s not as clear cut as all that. I don’t agree with a cull, nor do I think it’s a huge risk. But… in a way that driving down a road the day after a fatal car accident doesn’t increase the risk of dying. Going swimming the day after a fatal shark attack is perhaps a little misguided.

    You’ll not find many surfers who think shark culling is a good idea, there is an acceptance of the inherent dangers of the sport.

    You will find surfers who really don’t like commercial operations chumming to attract sharks so people can go down in shark cages and get their jollies.

    Sorry, I missed the bit where surfers owned the sea? So they can get their ‘jollies’, but “really don’t like” other people who do?

    DezB
    Free Member

    That would be like culling people who are attacked by sharks

    Duh yeah. I’m well fick me.
    But I love sharks. Wouldn’t go swimming with them though.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Sorry, I missed the bit where surfers owned the sea? So they can get their ‘jollies’, but “really don’t like” other people who do?

    Then you’ve not been surfing as an outsider. The locals own the local waves. Fact. 😈

    nickjb
    Free Member

    But I love sharks. Wouldn’t go swimming with them though.

    I’m a fan of sharks too, and I do go swimming with them. We did freak out some locals when a giant ray came into the bay. They all ran out the water we grabbed our masks and ran in. Even though I know sharks are mostly harmless it still gives me the willys when I’m in the water with them.

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    Shark finning is the biggest problem… Disgusting, cruel and wasteful all for some fishy flavoured soup

    fasthaggis
    Full Member

    Some fishy flavoured things are worth making an effort for.

    olddog
    Full Member

    njee20 – I was, in part answering a point made by atlaz.

    The point about chumming is that there is an ongoing and unresolved question about whether it causes sharks to associated people with food – surfers or divers – and is a completely artificial interaction. Think it was banned in Western Australia, but that may well have been as much to do with the Govt needing to be seen to doing something and weighing the bad publicity of shark attacks against the loss of income from cage diving

    http://digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/21/why-i-wont-go-shark-cage-diving/

    http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa-ban-on-shark-cages/story-e6frg12c-1226419829214?nk=e133b9b8b297ff061236e3ebadc8985f

    RaveyDavey
    Free Member

    I’d rather take my chances with a shark than a croc! Pretty much guaranteed messy outcome.

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