What gives the human race the right to kill/cull/slaughter other species to promote its own population.
Fact:
1800's Human population 1 billion
now 7 billion
only 12 years ago it was 6 billion.
Population growth is out of control.
With more population, more people will be in the water so expect more attacks.
Pretty simple people.
As the population grows so too the number of people with the "gotta cull" attitude grows.
Food for thought
I can take "food for thought" but becoming food for sharks in not an acceptable method of family planning.
I totally agree we are far too many but it is insane to regard accepting shark attacks on people as a way of keeping our numbers in check.
Terrible what's happened this past year, but what about acoustic tagging of sharks like CSIRO have been doing? Spend the $$'s on catch, tag and release. Set-up local listening stations and keep an eye on where the tagged sharks are. If there's one in the area, let people know. Won't necessarily solve the problem, but allows us to spend some of our energy actively seeking to track down sharks in the area so they can be tagged and monitored (not killed). Will also add greatly to our knowledge of their behaviour.
^^ +1, if you are going to go to the trouble of catching them, why not tag and release? bend the rules enough to turn it into a sport without killing them and the punters will pay big bucks for it. You won't tag them all, but it's better than culling them, and still not getting them all.
The biggest fear for me is some young kid (mine) getting taken.
I think a sensible solution would be shark nets at a number of high usage areas that catch 90% of water users, if we netted off 200m of beach at cottesloe , City beach , scarborough and trigg you would provide a safe option to most of Perths surfers.
If like me you prefer to surf on your own or in higher quality waves outside of those areas you just have to accept the risk that you are taking.
Helicopter patrols are a PR exercise and must be highly uneffective.
Read all of the posts on this thread , understand most if not all opinions & points of view .... but there isn't one single thing that will help young Ben's family get him back and that is what matters to them.
Also wanted to say Bravo to his mates & that Jet-Ski operator who is a Hero in my mind.
Continue on peoples
May Gods blessing for you be great and innumerable and struggles few and far between. Take care and God Bless - Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding;
culling sharks will teach us nothing. Yet if you kill a shark known to be responsible for an attack is killed we could learn loads. 1. we can learn the health of the shark and if they really are attacking due to lack of food. 2. If it is the one rouge shark out there it will be eliminated. 3. it will give some peace of mind to family and others 4. the shark may be able to be identified by tags or photo and see if there is connections to cage diving or other human interaction.
But the biggest problem with this is that you would need to wait for another attack and also for the government to pull there thumb out there bum and do something. the fact is that killing a few known to be dangerous sharks may end up saving the species..
The Gubmnt the Gubmint must do something, oh why doesn't the Gubmint do something?
If you are not careful they will. In fact they probably will anyway and you can bet your last dollar that it will result in loss of freedom. Freedom to surf where you want to and when you want to.
I have skimmed through this post from start to finish and it is just the same as the last one. Sure it is tragic but for the life of me I cannot understand why it is that people cannot grow up and accept reality.
And Great Whites on the Stockton Bight feed almost exclusively on the shoals of Kahawai salmon but there is one out there, Jimmy is his name, who has developed a hankering for something different.Watch out Stabber, you are beginning to look like a seal!
In South Oz they do cage diving with GWSharks,
Sounds harmless enough but the sharks get feed,Feed lots!
Not a easy meal as the food is on a string and when they go to eat it the string is pulled and the shark misses the food,
After several attempts the shark eventually wins.
But these sharks are smart they return every year to the same spot and play the same game.
What they eat is boxes and boxes of large cut up tuna.
When one changes eating habits what happens? They get bigger and need more eating right?
Most of these sharks that visit have been tagged and most of the readings are along the WA coast and some to the East coast.
This year has been a bumper season for the company,seeing up to 8 sharks per day.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE EAT TOO MUCH FAST FOOD? WE GET FAT AND LOOK FOR THE NEXT FAST FOOD SHOP!
This has been going on for 20 years and increasing every year, in the old days they would take out just 1 or 2 tuna but now days its like 20 tuna cut into 60 big fat juicy steaks!
DawnPatrol is allowed his opinion, it's okay. I believe I'm intelligent and maybe at the time I over-reacted. I do that sometimes. It's hard not to react emotionally, rather than rationally given the topic.
If you walk in the african savannah you risk being eaten by a lion or chased by a rhino.
If you swim in the Indian Ocean you risk being eaten by a shark
Thems the risks.
If you don't feel comfortable with those risks/odds - stay on land.
