Had a chat today with Chris Fallows, he is well known for his study of the GWS and the amazing photos of the "jumping jacks" of False Bay in South Africa. He asked me to post this on his behalf.

Hi Damian.

Please feel free to post the following quote on my behalf as I leave for a
month long project in a few days and right now don't have the time to sign
up and continue on the thread but am happy to put my point across.

In South Africa the white shark was protected in 1991. since then many,
particularly those in the surfing industry have said that there is a
population explosion.
The simple truth is as follows. Since 1991 I have either run my own business
or been involved in various research projects and businesses dealing on a
daily basis with white sharks.
During this time we have collected data on every single white shark sighted
as well as all predatory events. This has been on over 1850 days at sea
spent with white sharks and recording over 7700 predatory events on seals.
During that time we HAVE NOT noticed a population explosion and if anything
a decline in numbers as well as in average size. Today more than ever white
sharks are being killed directly by long lines, shark nets, poaching, by
catch, boat strikes. Sportfishing for them may have stopped but these other
practices have increased and the great white knows no boundaries and as such
as it leaves Aus , S.Afr waters or others where it is protected it is fair
game in the next countries.
We have also noticed a massive decline in the white sharks summer food
source, smaller sharks species such a smooth hound sharks, bronze whalers
and others. During the same period there has been a large increase in water
users in a variety of new pursuits from kite boarding to SUP's and others
that were not there 20 years back. Today white sharks are having to cover
more ground than ever before to find their normal food when not feeding on
seals. This has meant a greater chance of encountering a human and with the
greater numbers in the water a greater chance of incidence.
In False Bay over the past 10 years we have seen an increase in shark
attacks and face the same issues as those is W.Aus. Instead of killing the
sharks the local surfers, authorities and municipalities have looked at ways
to keep beaches and the surf safer without killing sharks as the value of
these animals to the tourism industry is massive and more importantly it is
an animal that is important to the eco-system. These methods have included
the Shark Spotting program which has been very effective. There is now a
shark exclusion net going to be used around a popular beach where the shark
attacks have been most prevalent. This is not a killing device but a barrier
simply to keep the sharks out , giving those people who are scared to swim
in an open environment an option. South Africa has many socio economic
problems and is not nearly as first world overall as Australia but generally
people try very hard nowadays to co-exist with the sharks knowing that they
are actually very rare animals , are important to the environment, have a
huge financial benefit through responsible eco-tourism and quite simply
after surviving over 400 million years of evolution have a right to be in
the ocean where for the most part humans are visitors recreating.
I am not 100% familiar with the nature of the locality where the attacks are
most prevalent but certainly the measures put in place in False Bay South
Africa have gone a long way to making our ocean safer without having to use
the knee jerk reaction of simply go out and kill.
For the record I body board, SUP, free dive and regularly dive where great
whites occur so am not speaking from a standpoint of someone who does not
use the ocean and is not also at risk.
If Australia was to go out and cull the great white the precedent would be
set globally to simply kill any shark that dares to question our dominance
as a species rather than looking for ways that give us as humans a greatly
reduced risk alternative ( shark spotting program, exclusion nets, marine
reserves encouraging the re establishment of the white sharks fish/small
shark based prey) and therefore at the same time protect sharks by not
creating human/predator conflict by way of an attack.

Best wishes

Chris Fallows

Interesting post bakesy. He makes some good points, good to hear from someone who has studied them.

Is he the guy that runs the cage diving tours in south Africa?

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SP said...

Interesting post bakesy. He makes some good points, good to hear from someone who has studied them.

agreed. thanks for posting

some good points, but its time for an exclusion zone...

Great post, agree with many of his points.

Rob

yep SP that is one of the parts of his business, check his website for more info.

All good points and a good message.
My only problem with his findings is that apparently the seal population has exploded in south west WA, and there are record numbers of whales cruising up the coast.
Wouldn't this suggest a greater amount of food for them?
As far as there being more people in the water, perhaps thats true, but places like rottnest and cott have always being crowded, so is it such a factor?
Something has changed in the last few years, and just blaming it on more people in the water seems a bit too easy.

I don't doubt that if they wanted to eat us, then they would hang off the gold coast picking off floundering tourists and I don't want to see an idiotic response like the government going out and culling sharks.
I just wonder if there is not some other environmental play in action here.

As a side thought, would it be possible to make industrial size shark shields, and park them 100 mtrs off the popular beaches?

Thanks for posting. I happily stand corrected.

look its all great to read, BUT i will say this. we kill dogs if they attack people(not kill) and as people we are all happy to do that yet with sharks its a oh no you cant to do that. we are a strange breed that inhabit this beautiful planet

1st, he makes a living out of these creatures so he would want to protect the crap out of them for his income.
2nd, why are they not having a chew on sup riders or kite surfers?
1 had a go at the crab boat the other day and nearly knocked the 2 fishermen out, wouldn't it be easier for them to knock off a sup or 2?
The price of fish and chips is still through the roof and I'm getting hungry.
As much as I am worried about these awesome beings, I am still putting my toes in the freaking water. I am freaking nuts.

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chrispychru said...

look its all great to read, BUT i will say this. we kill dogs if they attack people(not kill) and as people we are all happy to do that yet with sharks its a oh no you cant to do that. we are a strange breed that inhabit this beautiful planet

We kill dogs that have been caught after they attack people the next dog we see

my fear that that message is biased due to business concerns, wished it were true but hard to believe, also fear that the small boat industry and surf industry would try and convince everone that its all ok, carry on as normal to keep their livelihoods going. I mean who is going to buy a boat at the moment to surf or dive from??????????? Maybe a fisherman but with all the fishing restrictions?That has to be another multi mill business impact where the players are very concerned to keep cash flow going.
Also have had mates catch snapper from the beach in our bay so u can't tell me the fish stocks and associated marine life are not thriving in WA, maybe not the rest of the world but here they're doing ok......maybe thats why the sharks are here to feed on the whale population, seals etc.
Mackies off rotto too!!!

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my fear that that message is biased due to business concerns

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he makes a living out of these creatures so he would want to protect the crap out of them for his income

Exactly. As I have said previously, people with an agenda are not going to be able to give an objective view point. Are you really going to give any credibility to Japanese Whalers reporting a whale population explosion? We need an unbiased objective study done. As far as I know there isn't enough data out there to determine whether or not gw numbers are on the increase in WA. There have been a number of studies done in California and they have shown an increase in the gw population off their coast.

Interesting read Bakesy.
I still just really doubt the whole population increase/more ocean users as plausable excuse at least here in WA.
Look at where the attacks have occured. Fair enough 2 at cott, which you could call a heavily populated area. 1 at Safety bay. Yeah well it's kinda heavily populated. 1 at rotto. That's questionable but there are quite a few ocean users there at that time of year that the attack occured.
The other 6 have been down south or up north which are not heavily populated areas.
They've always had people surfing those breaks or diving those reefs for years with no incident.
It just doesn't add up to me.

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kwalkington said...

my fear that that message is biased due to business concerns,

There was a 'study' conducted in South Africa in 2006 based on a workshop which identified that there was no direct correllation between Shark tourism in False Bay and Shark Incidents in the area.

The Workshop was conducted by the SA Tourism Board and the World Wildlife Fund. Both orginisations profit enourmously through their advocations Great White Sharks Conservation and tourism.

Draw your own conclusions....

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Woodo said...

Interesting read Bakesy.
I still just really doubt the whole population increase/more ocean users as plausable excuse at least here in WA.
Look at where the attacks have occured. Fair enough 2 at cott, which you could call a heavily populated area. 1 at Safety bay. Yeah well it's kinda heavily populated. 1 at rotto. That's questionable but there are quite a few ocean users there at that time of year that the attack occured.
The other 6 have been down south or up north which are not heavily populated areas.
They've always had people surfing those breaks or diving those reefs for years with no incident.
It just doesn't add up to me.

Yeah exactly. I remember in the 90s there was hardly ever a sighting, let alone an attack/near miss.

Don't we have more chance dying of bee sting, lightning or falling off a chair ? Fark those stats as they don't make me feel any safer.

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Scotty88 said...

Don't we have more chance dying of bee sting, lightning or falling off a chair ? Fark those stats as they don't make me feel any safer.

More chance of getting killed on the way to work but..............................

yep no doubt his business revolves around the GWS but you'd find it hard to get an objective opinion from anyone at the moment. He knows these creatures better than anyone on the planet and has found a way to generate some income to continue his research. His main source of income is eco-tourism and many consider his to be best practice, sure his research has been confined to False Bay which may not translate to here but he is having a look at our situation and will provide some thoughts on that soon.

People will believe what they want. Simple as that.

I have friends that refuse to admit smoking is bad for you

Yeah what would Chris know, he probably even speaks funny so that proves it, he's a fraud. (Even though a mate knows him personally)

last time i checked we were in australia not africa

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kwalkington said...

last time i checked we were in australia not africa

True but they do have the same problem, I think we have more people in the water more often.

And the sharks here can swim over there and visa versa.

very true, agreed, would also like to know why attachs seem to have dropped off in south aust.

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kwalkington said...

very true, agreed, would also like to know why attachs seem to have dropped off in south aust.

No-one goes in the water

I still think developing a shark shield that actually works on the relevant species solves our problem. $350 per unit and we can all do what we love in peace.

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Kiting said...

I still think developing a shark shield that actually works on the relevant species solves our problem. $350 per unit and we can all do what we love in peace.

My only problem with them is they seem too bulky.

ive been in touch with an electronics specialist hopefully a lighterweight model is possible !

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katana said...

ive been in touch with an electronics specialist hopefully a lighterweight model is possible !

An ankle type of thing would be great so its in the water all the time unless paddling.

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doggie said...

katana said...

ive been in touch with an electronics specialist hopefully a lighterweight model is possible !

An ankle type of thing would be great so its in the water all the time unless paddling.

There's an ankle one on the market now. In the ankle strap part of the leash.

https://www.esdshawaii.com/

Now they just need to get them to actually work

Chris is making good points, instead of killing them looking for ways to reduce risk...They are important in the ecosystem...we should find out why this is happening and then act appropriately.