Sharks!

As a diver living along the Queensland coast a few things always make you sit up and listen, one being the sightings of the dreaded box jellyfish which without equal is the most deadly creature on earth, and number two, the news is full of it at the moment shark attacks. I have only been here since November but I am an avid news watcher and almost every day there is an incident involving a shark. While doing some research I have found that this last summer over here has had more attacks reported than any other year.

One thing though that does make me feel a lot better is the fact that over 90% of attacks are on Surfers, but of course there are the outstanding 10% to worry about.

Firstly it has to be said that Sharks get very bad publicity, Ok occasionally it has been known for one of the larger variety’s to attack and eat people but in the bigger picture they get a very raw deal.

If the motoring industry was to look at yearly death toll figures and correlate those to specific cars, would we then all jump up and down demanding blood, of course we would not. I liken the whole thing to the poor spider and snakes they have had bad press from the year dot and sharks drop into the same category. Of course the film series Jaws did nothing to liken normal people to embrace sharks as endangered species, in fact it set of a blood lust among the fishing fraternity. One scary estimate indicates that upwards of 12 million sharks and rays are being taken each year worldwide as a by catch from other fishing and unbelievably 6.5million of those being Blue Sharks. One piece of news that was in my Sunday paper is that fishing groups here have warned of an increase of attacks due to changes in quotas from 1000 tonnes to 600 tonnes and fishing licences from 1400 to fewer than 200, this will be started this July so next summer should be interesting.

During research for this piece I came across lots of facts and figures but one that did make me do a double take was because of the concern of the much maligned Great White, the fact that in 1990 a decline in numbers lead South Africa into protecting the Great White, making it illegal to hook them within 200 miles of the coast. Since then many others followed suit by signing up and following South Africa’s example and here is the one that got my attention, on the 24th September 1999, Malta became the first country in Europe to ban the fishing of Great Whites. Now that will make the blokes in Europe sit up and think about what’s down there in the Med.

There are in the region of 344 known species of shark ranging from the gigantic Whale Shark to the miniature Dwarf Shark. They are without question, number one in the food chain. They have become the definitive underwater predator. But of course not all are man eating beasts of the deep. Only 30 are known to be harmful to men. The Whale Shark is the largest fish in the sea and can grows to over 12m (40ft) and the Basking Shark that grows normally to 8m (26ft) and both filter food through huge mouths and filter out microscopic plankton.

But of course we want to know about the big beasties that roam the oceans eating people. As I stated they are number 1 when it comes to sea predators and have been so for the past millions of years, they were around when the Dinosaurs were wiped of the face of the earth and as far as age is concerned Sharks and Crocodiles were both around at the beginning. Over the years the sharks have evolved and in fact got smaller. I was lucky enough to meet up with an Australian Shark expert Alan Betteridge who gave me some interesting facts as well as showing me some artefacts, one being a tooth from what they call a White Pointer (Great White) millions of years old and from the size of the tooth the animal in question would have been in the region of 12/15 metres in length. Today they grow to roughly 4/5 metres long. They are also able to regenerate teeth throughout their lives up to in some cases 100 sets, beats the dentist and false teeth any day.

They have amazing senses for example they can detect 1 drop of blood per million of water. They have under their skins a thing called the Ampule of Lorenzini and with this receptor a shark has the ability to pick up distressed fish as an electrical pulse at vast distances. They are also extremely sensitive to vibration and magnetic fields. In fact they are a totally awesome creature, supremely adapted to life in the sea, they normally cruise the oceans for the duration of their lives at a brisk 4 knots but are able to increase speed in the blink of an eye to over 20 knots. There are a few sharks that can stop or lie in the sand and have adapted their breathing to that of fish but the majority have to keep moving to survive.

Having talked and listened to my Shark Man for an hour I was taken with his enthusiasm for these much badly thought of creatures to the extent I shall be joining him on a shark awareness diving trip later this year and he tells me we will get very close and personal with them.

I also asked him for his views on recent shark attacks in Australia, he shrugged and said it was a fact of life here but in 30 years of diving with sharks he has never felt threatened by them. I also asked his views on Shark Shields and again shrugged and said ‘never tried one’. I think I shall still hedge my bets and get one.

The Navy diver who lost an arm & leg in a recent attack in Sydney Harbour was not wearing his issued Shark Shield as it was thought there would be no danger within the confines of the harbour. A few days later a 3 metre Bull Shark was pulled out 500 metres from the attack site.

Every Saturday I sail with a bunch of guys from the nearby marina and on Saturday 28th Feb I personally saw two Bull Sharks cruising about the marina, less than 3metres deep, it makes you wonder sometimes!I did not write this with the intention of scaring people but to make them more aware of the bigger things that are out there in our playground and strangely enough the smaller things like the Box Jelly fish.

My Shark Man gave me a good piece of advice; just remember we invaded their territory, so if you do happen to see one give them space and a great deal of respect, they have been around a lot longer than us. Safe diving.