There has been some large sharks spotted recently in popular sailing locations around Adelaide.This is not uncommon for this time of year ,the fish [salmon and snapper]move in close to the shore and the shark planes are in the air.
My question is are the great whites in danger or have they actually bred so well since the world placed a moratorium on their capture that they are no longer a threatened species.
There are lots of shark experts but they still no very little about these creatures.Most of the experts actually profit from the increase numbers of sharks with cage dives and tourists etc.
Do the shark shields work against a white pointer and can they make them smaller and cheaper?.
Next time a big white is hanging around the Adelaide metro coast I think they should auction the right to catch it on e bay.It might sound silly but I believe it would be sold for huge amounts of money.Some high profile rich dude gets to keep the jaws and plaster cast replica he then sells the film to fox tell.
The money that is raised from the death of this shark would help fund research to find out more about them and if they do find out that they are in danger then they should be protected.
Man takes every thing from the sea except white pointers the food chain is out of balance it needs to be investigated more.
The tribes in Africa do the same thing with Lions and Elephants ,but the money goes to the villages.
Most of the laws are made by people that do not play in the sea .
I am not asking for a slaughter of these animals but more research into them . I have seen them they are not scared of boats or man they are actually encouraged to boats .
One thing is for sure there will be more shark attacks.
Regardless I look forward without fear to my next sail or surf.

yeah now there's a good idea........NOT!.

lets start auctioning off wildlife hunts on ebay......

why didn't i think of that.

Its probably a similar situation with crocodiles in FNQ and the NT. They were hunted to oblivion by people, including my father, around 40 years ago.

Now they are everywhere and are causing problems as they are big bastards who have no natural predators.

The differences could be that big sharks breed less successfully than crocs. Also its much more difficult to identify shark populations.

Its true the real beneficiaries of bans on shark fishing are the shark 'experts'. They say the species is threatened. The government gives them a grant of a few million dollars to go out and find out, which means they get their jollies going out in boats and taking photos, diving and stuff.

Whale experts can be tagged with the same brush, along with greenhouse and ozone layer scientists. Not a bad lurk getting down to Antartica every summer to drill some holes in the ice. I bet they bring plenty of beer with them and no worries about keeping them cold.

Anyway what can be done with white pointers? Not much I guess till people start getting eaten by them regularily. If Kylie Minogue gets taken off a beach it will be open season on them. If Guy Sebastian gets taken, scientists will be encouraged to develop AI for big sharks to boost their numbers.

Interesting thoughts

What about getting the Japanese to do "scientific tests", design some genetecially engineered cross with whites/gummy sharks, release them in the wild to breed and just have big scary pointers without teeth - they'll gum you to death or suck your leg off!

Maybe we need to contract the Japanese whalers to catch drunk and reckless drivers and "use them for scientific testing or organ donation" statiscally we still have more chance of dying driving to the beach or even being struck by lightning or a heart attack when we think we saw one

They still make me nervous around SA but we need to put the risk in perspective

I think the main point that is being forgotten here is that when you go windsurfing - WE are in THEIR territory, not the other way around. We are the outsiders, so to condon the killing of great whites (even for these so called "research purposes" - come on - the Japanese have been using that one for a long time) is quite similar to a sayin it is totally fine to kill your nieghbour because he drives on the road and could quite possibly run you down one day.

So pretty much if you want to go sailing, you take the risk to deal with the sharks.

As for the killing of great whites - maybe take a second to think that at least when they kill, they do it for food - NOT just so we can rest easy when we go sailing in the ocean.

hey i look at it this way!!!.... if a HUGE fark off shark comes and bites my head of and mauls me to death.... while im windsurfing..... atleast i will die one happy person!!!! CAUSE windsurfing makes me so happy!! and its definatly worth risking getting eaten alive!!! peace.

I fear sharks...but I HATE jellyfish(blue stinging ****ers)

mkseven said...

Since they are warm blooded they need a fat rich diet, to them you are just a lean hors-douvre and once they realise you're hardly worth the bite they'll swim away- albeit with you bleeding to death and all.

far as I know dolphins are the only warm-blooded fish??!!

They most certainly have warm blood, not as warm as ours though. Tuna, Mako and 1 or 2 other species of shark have warm blood also (have the capacity to elevate the temperature of their blood above that of the water they are in).

I thought you guys were adrenalin junkies.......No sharks = no adrenalin....

Great white sharks can maintain the body temperature higher than the surrounding water temperate, but i wouldnt call them 'warm blooded' like us.

If sharks eat humans and we eat shark doesn't kind of make us canonballs

I see they do not describe them as "warm blooded" though?
I wonder why they dont use the heat seeking technology to find them on the beach patrols then, as with body searches etc?

shark said...

I see they do not describe them as "warm blooded" though?

Yes you are correct, they are not "warm blooded" but they do have warm blood... nuff said