Does anyone have any info on the dolphin killed by a shark at Mettams yesterday afternoon. Someone told me this morning that there were surfers in the water near where it happened.

Geez another one???
Just goes to show that if they were really keen on having a gnaw on us we wouldn't have much say in the matter. If they're quick enough to nail Flipper then we'd be knackered.

http://www.sharkalarm.com.au/event/600

Always felt pretty safe around there, makes you cringe reading that the attack was 6m away from surfers.

Yep, Killing all the local wildlife. No seals left at Little Island either. Should keep the shark lovers and our timid politicians happy though.

no seals at Little Island, that was something my brother mentioned to me the other day. He has had craypots off there for twenty years, I'll also add that the fishing has been pretty average offshore so far this season, maybe science can explain this as I'm at a loss

Killing all the local wild life? Oh the horror, That's called nature my friend. Tiger Sharks are native to Perth and dolphins have always made up a part of their diet. Don't tell me you're gonna complain when a turtle or dugong gets eaten up north too?

Bakesy, I think you already know the answer to why there is bugger all left in the ocean ;-)

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smicko said...
Geez another one???
Just goes to show that if they were really keen on having a gnaw on us we wouldn't have much say in the matter. If they're quick enough to nail Flipper then we'd be knackered.

I agree, the slow humans would have been much easier to catch. If they really wanted us there would be carnage every day.

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subasurf said...
Killing all the local wild life? Oh the horror, That's called nature my friend. Tiger Sharks are native to Perth and dolphins have always made up a part of their diet. Don't tell me you're gonna complain when a turtle or dugong gets eaten up north too?

Bakesy, I think you already know the answer to why there is bugger all left in the ocean ;-)

Yes, maybe, but this close to a super populated metro shoreline? Something has changed in the waters of west oz my friend, but my guess is you are tOo wet around the ears to know this.

Mrs GPA will not be happy to hear this - just got her comfortable snorkelling the swim-thrus at the back of the reef...

Scary stuff, I grew up surfing "mets for sets". Spent whole days down there as a grom making fires on the beach to keep warm in winter between sessions & I've always felt safer with dolphins around. Especially when there are so many vids of dolphins protecting people from sharks on youtube. Who knows maybe this one was too : /

not last year Suba, I've fished the same area pretty much for over a decade with an eye on conservation. Last year was incredible, over thirty demersals caught/released that were 15kg plus, with the Dec/Jan months producing the bulk of these. On average that was the best ever, this season 10 caught/released with the biggest maybe 8kg, thinking they might turn up late, if not somethings wrong. You do get good/bad years but it feels really bad this year.

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MickPC said...
I've always felt safer with dolphins around. Especially when there are so many vids of dolphins protecting people from sharks on youtube. Who knows maybe this one was too : /

I was thinking the same thing.
I guess on a positive note better a dolphin than a human. (Though some people may disagree)
Been out fishing metro quite a bit of late. Plenty of big bait schools out there all the way form in close to past rotto. The pelagics aren't going to be far behind.
And some great demersal fishing to be had as well.

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Ctngoodvibes said...

Yes, maybe, but this close to a super populated metro shoreline? Something has changed in the waters of west oz my friend, but my guess is you are tOo wet around the ears to know this.

I'm more familiar with how much the West Coast waters have changed than you might think mate. Sharks have always been feeding in shore, on a variety of marine animals. We're just paying more attention these days than we use to and we're becoming far more aware that there are more than just herring, tailor and dolphins cruising in our waters.

There has been some big changes to the 'ebb and flow' of the ocean. None of them pleasant and most of it because of us.

Bakesy, I know you're on of the blokes on here that I definitely respect in terms of knowing a thing or two about our waters. What do you think might be responsible for what you're seeing?
I've always wondered what the mortality rate of catch and release deep water fish is?

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subasurf said...

Sharks have always been feeding in shore, on a variety of marine animals. We're just paying more attention these days than we use to and we're becoming far more aware that there are more than just herring, tailor and dolphins cruising in our waters.

There has been some big changes to the 'ebb and flow' of the ocean. None of them pleasant and most of it because of us.

Hearsay, your Honour!

Suba correct me if wrong aren't u being educated by the punters at the uni that clearly are making themselves look as though they are behind the 8 ball

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rbl said...
Suba correct me if wrong

Ok. You're wrong.

I was down there having a lazy hot afternoon SUP paddle and saw the dolphins moving south fast, feeding on fish i thought , I saw a shark fin but dismissed it as a dolphin, about 15 mins latter another pod went thru fast and behind it this time I saw a shark fin, different action, color etc about 50m out from the back. I let other surfers know and paddled to the right hander and let those guys know and checked no snorkelers out the back of mettems before paddling in.

I didn't see the shark attack a dolphin or eat it but that may have happened after I left the beach. The shark was a fair way off the beach, nothing to be worried about.

Cheers

well Suba all I can think of is that something within the ecosystem has changed I see Woodo has noticed a few things as well. The water temp is something I've been noting only for a couple of years but have read that this has caused a heap of damage to abalone, crays, crabs and other species. The shark thing is a bit of a worry too, in a lifetime (42yrs) on the water I've seen the odd change, one that was really weird was the emergence of mud crabs in the Murchison during the mid nineties. The other has been Spanairds off Two Rocks. These species will probably have an impact on the metro/southern scene and may have caused an imbalance. Those fish kills around Leeman really worried me, some weird stuff has happened in the Peel Estuary over the last decade that guys who have lived down here for 50 years just can't recall ever happening before, definately worth noting and would explain why apex predators are hitting the shoreline for a feed.

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rbl said...
Suba correct me if wrong aren't u being educated by the punters at the uni that clearly are making themselves look as though they are behind the 8 ball

Thing is ALOT of time goes into research before we can say something is definite and even then there is a greater chance of it being refuted by other researchers around the world. This is possibly why it takes so long for anything to happen in re: research on our grey suited mates. Even worse is how modern society wants a quick fix for everything but sometimes that may not be the best thing.

Suba's right in that years ago we didn't have the technology etc that we do now which has allowed us to become more aware of our surroundings and the sharks swimming underneath us. Furthermore there is definitely more people in the water now than compared to years before increasing the chances of a curious bite here and there. On a side note it is interesting to note that in a certain popular surf spot in an Indo bay, there are plentiful sharks (up to 5m as a local had put it) but never any attacks due to plentiful fish stocks around (?).

The most important thing though is finding a happy medium rather than blatantly going off and shooting everything with a fin and sharp teeth or ignoring the facts of more and more people jumping in the water these days. We need people like Dave (as read before) being funded and supported in their pursuits of 'anti-shark' devices than political witch hunts which seem to be the case of aussie governments these days.

I'm not here to have a go at anyone or refute anything. I just loved surfing mettams especially on a big day when the swell kicked in. It'd be such a fun/ forgiving wave. Have had the days though when I was the only one out and it indeed felt sharky to the point of making friends with whoever ventured out - longboarders, sup'ers or lidders regardless

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bakesy said...
well Suba all I can think of is that something within the ecosystem has changed I see Woodo has noticed a few things as well. The water temp is something I've been noting only for a couple of years but have read that this has caused a heap of damage to abalone, crays, crabs and other species. The shark thing is a bit of a worry too, in a lifetime (42yrs) on the water I've seen the odd change, one that was really weird was the emergence of mud crabs in the Murchison during the mid nineties. The other has been Spanairds off Two Rocks. These species will probably have an impact on the metro/southern scene and may have caused an imbalance. Those fish kills around Leeman really worried me, some weird stuff has happened in the Peel Estuary over the last decade that guys who have lived down here for 50 years just can't recall ever happening before, definately worth noting and would explain why apex predators are hitting the shoreline for a feed.

^What we need is a combination of research and wisdom of experienced water men working together to solve this problem. You don't get that type of information purely researching and if only institutions and governments realised that!

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subasurf said...
Killing all the local wild life? Oh the horror, That's called nature my friend. Tiger Sharks are native to Perth and dolphins have always made up a part of their diet. Don't tell me you're gonna complain when a turtle or dugong gets eaten up north too?

Big difference between a colony of seals decimated in perth metro area and a dugong getting eaten up North.

As I said- should keep the shark lovers happy.

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bakesy said...
well Suba all I can think of is that something within the ecosystem has changed I see Woodo has noticed a few things as well. The water temp is something I've been noting only for a couple of years but have read that this has caused a heap of damage to abalone, crays, crabs and other species. The shark thing is a bit of a worry too, in a lifetime (42yrs) on the water I've seen the odd change, one that was really weird was the emergence of mud crabs in the Murchison during the mid nineties. The other has been Spanairds off Two Rocks. These species will probably have an impact on the metro/southern scene and may have caused an imbalance. Those fish kills around Leeman really worried me, some weird stuff has happened in the Peel Estuary over the last decade that guys who have lived down here for 50 years just can't recall ever happening before, definately worth noting and would explain why apex predators are hitting the shoreline for a feed.

Forget Spaniards off Two Rocks, Marlin were caught in Geographe Bay last summer!!

Not to mention a whale shark off Albany early 2012.
Lot of warmer than 'usual' water around.

I remember going threw this about a year ago with you suba.........yawn

Yet I havent started any of the discussions....

I know, just wondering why it took so long to get out there...that's all

@bakesy, there has allways been brown muddies in the Murch, that current bought a different species being the green muddie and mangrove jacks, giant herring as well as few other things.

Subi u love sharkdebate dont deny it

I never did.
Does your mum know you're up this late?

yep Thommo that sounds right just confirmed with the mother in law who's lived there since the late 60's, well kept info for a long time. Do you know when the Shark Bay blue manna's were found? I thought they were a southern species but obviously the current may work in reverse, you might get dhuies up your way one day!

The blue swimmer crab is found all around Australia, and into Asia (including India) and even Africa.

A guy at Murdoch presented a thesis on them in 2004, trying to understand their genetic dispersal around Australia. It hurt my brain.

As for the difference between our local crabs and the ones in Shark bay, the ones up north can spawn all year around and thus get real good recruitment levels; because there is a strong correlation between water temp and recruitment success.


Sorry, a bit off topic.

^^Yep and there's plenty of dhuies around here they run out around the 26 parallel, start getting pearl pearch then..they look similar to a dhuie got a black windbag tho