soleman said...smicko said...soleman said...
Hey smicko try 1.6ks off the beach and four fatalities in 6 months is not cool, then try to remember south point not that long ago. the south west communities are shocked again today so please lets not turn this into a high and mighty "you all know the risks session". Some one has been killed today! That bloke in cott was about 350m off the beach, less than the distance of surfing margs on a decent day. the bloke on rotto was anchored just out of one of the bays over there, Also dont forget the poor bloke in port kennedy, the two at cott in the early years of the 2000's, a survivor off bunbury, Brad smith in gracetown etc. End of the day it is terrible and nobody wants this sort of stuff happening. please, lets keep it cool this time lads.
Hey soleman, my comment was based on an earlier report that had the brothers 15km off Port Geo marina, rather than 15km NORTH of Port Geo marina. Regardless 1.6k's is still a long way offshore and I dare say they would've been in 8-10m+ of water plus a pretty damn good chance of them spearfishing or looping crays - feeding stimuli. It's the sort of country these things live and feed in. If you don't want to risk being a statistic don't go there.
I know I get spooked anytime I'm surfing North or South Points and many other places along that stretch, however I weigh up the odds and that's a choice I choose to make. Tell ya what though, there's no fkn way you'd catch me paddling across the bay from one break to the other. Nor would you find me swimming 350m off Cott in 10m+ of water and having lived on The Rock for nearly three years I can tell you I was always very circumspect about diving around the Island. I was just careful about how I did it, I never, EVER dived around Cathy's and generally stuck pretty close to the shore, there's still plenty of nice fish, swim throughs etc without venturing hundreds of meters offshore.
In Indo I paddle across deep water without a second thought, I won't do it here. That's what I mean by "We all know the risks and it's up to us..."
As in my previous post, if we had more instances like Brian Guest's death(15m or so from the beach in 5m of water) then I'd be happy to look at culling but we simply don't. The stats are saying that if you swim or dive in 10m+ of water or surf around areas with a steep drop off and/or seals then you have an increased chance of an encounter. It's up to us to make that choice.
Understandably so smicko but lets just have a little bit af tact from time to time. I was not having a crack at your opinion and was emotionally charged when i replied to your post, i do agree that we all have our own thoughts and views and they are valid for debate, but the timing was out mate, two young kids and a wife lost their Dad / husband, a family lost their son / brother. the population of the south west from margs to bunbury are either keen surfers, fishos, divers (or all) are tight knit and were shocked as i already mentioned. Stratham is west of capel and not many can say they have seen a big boy out there before, like cow bay it was seen as a pretty safe place for a dive in comparison to the capes region. "there's still plenty of nice fish, swim throughs etc without venturing hundreds of meters offshore." maybe on rotto, not so much here.
The timing could never be more apt, some poor bugger has just been killed by a large predator, again! What better time to discuss the fact that we have a population of big animals swimming around our coastline that are perfectly capable of having us for lunch??
It's time that people started taking responsibility for their actions and stop putting themselves in dangerous situations if they don't want to accept the consequences of their actions. And like it or not, diving a coupla k's offshore, surfing Bonies or Southpoint or Lefties or pretty much any spot down there is putting yourself in the domain of White Sharks and ergo a dangerous situation.
The amount of big Dhuies and Sambo's I've seen monstered fishing less than 3k's off our coast is just plain ridiculous and if you've ever fished the snapper spawn in Cockburn Sound or jigged the barges for Sambo's then you'd have a reasonable idea of the number of sharks in our waters, there's lots. The last couple of years there's even been nutters in kayaks fishing the snapper spawn in Cockburn at night! It can only be a matter of time before one of these twits gets themselves killed.
I'd no sooner jump out of a boat a couple of k's offshore for a feed of crays than I'd partake in a three legged race across the freeway at peakhour. My chances of surviving the dive and ending up with a feed of crays would be a hell of a lot better than getting across the freeway in one piece but it's just not a risk I'm prepared to take. That's the choice I make.
I think the reason we're having more attacks is quite simply more people in the water, more often.
Speed limit not but awareness yes. Too many people these days are so caught up in the rat race of life, themselves and their own bills and mortgages and even keeping up with the Jones getting the latest t.v. etc. Maybe if people realised the world is not centred around them, we can prevent global pollution, accept the dangers in the things we do instead of making a big out roar of it all and lead lives that are much more simpler and happier.
