shark shields

[dstick]

Sad to hear about it but now begs the question will the shark sheild stop a Great White the has decided its gona Eat something in the field. or it protection. My thoughts are with the skipper and the guys family. the poor skipper saw the whole inceent and could do nothing for his mate.

Funny Every report I read says people are not sure if he was wearing a Shark Shield.

How about we get the facts before we start the chinese rumour mill?

I recon If your Time is up your time is up..... RIP This is Tragic, Hope his Family is being well looked after

Lesson to us all - try not to look like a seal or a Turtle in the water when returning to the surface.

For What it's worth I heard that he wasn't wearing one which if true is even more tragic given some of his experiences.

This is just like the experience from Cockburn sound, where the diver was wearing a shield - but it was not turned on!

FWIW as we get more experienced we get more complacent, Shallow water BLack out is teaching us this

Hope he didn't suffer. I feel for the Skipper, a mate of mine went through this up near the Abrols

[King Venom]

there is now new evidence to say that it very possible the sheild was not turned on or had gone flat. this only came out in the last 24hrs

this is also on the cards since the body has not been found no body really no's the facts.

[piscivorian]

A lot of the Esperance Ab divers now dive only with SS due to the presence of sharks there and so far it hasn't had any fatalities.
Mind you gotta check that it is on...Gaz found that out on one of the trips we did.. lucky for him was only a slightly agro Bronzie.
Mind you, have to start asking why we are starting to have more incidents... I know we have more divers in the water, but are we suddenly an easy food source given we dont move fast and we enter the water in numbers... something to consider

[admin]

population of whites growing?

[King Venom]

i dont belive the white population is growing. there is just less food for them out deep so they are coming into more shallow water looking for food. also if the protection was lifted they would be hunted to extinction. which would be of much sadness. these shark swim massive distances they have tracked them doing, A female great white shark has completed the first documented round-trip ocean crossing by a shark, swimming farther than any other known shark, according to a new study.

Nicole, as the shark is being called, traveled from Africa to Australia and back—a total of 12,400 miles (more than 20,000 kilometers)—in nine months. The feat also set a second record: fastest return migration of any known marine animal.

full storie see.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... stest.html

[piscivorian]

On that, the sharks often shadow the snapper/salmon migrations so as we put more pressure on these stocks then obviously they are looking for other food sources. Maybe it is time the commercial sector gave up nets and went back to the old line method... or people start to hunt for themselves again..

There has been a marked increase in sightings over the past few years especially in metro waters. This is across a broader spectrum of species tho.

[stSPEARO32]

more time in water equals more chance of encounters!!!
especially down south.

[TeeDee]

its not rocket science , great whites protected for nearly 20 years and you reckon that the numbers arent increasing?? Ray powell relayed to me that there are shoredive reefs that he used to dive in northern NSW and near the Gold Coast when he was a lad that he wouldnt go near now as they are swarming with juvenile whites, and absolutely no fish.
Its a slightly different senario but the Blue Groper has been protected in NSW for 40 years now & they are in plague proportions now and upseting the eco balance.

simple IMO , more whites = more sightings

[stSPEARO32]

its not rocket science , great whites protected for nearly 20 years and you reckon that the numbers arent increasing?? Ray powell relayed to me that there are shoredive reefs that he used to dive in northern NSW and near the Gold Coast when he was a lad that he wouldnt go near now as they are swarming with juvenile whites, and absolutely no fish.
Its a slightly different senario but the Blue Groper has been protected in NSW for 40 years now & they are in plague proportions now and upseting the eco balance.

simple IMO , more whites = more sightings

i agree tee dee with both GW n BlueG allso think exactly the same (cull) never hapen though:(

[teeroy blue]

Course there's more GWS, look at the juvenile population that lives off Stockton beach Nelson Bay NSW.. (youtube it) backs up what Teedee Said.. There's been fisherman/surfers using that beach for years and now in the last 5-10yrs their seeing more and having more encounters with GWS.

The GWS follow the whale migration pattern up all the southern Hemisphere coasts and provide an excellent food source for the growing GWS population, so its inevitable that the population will increase. More whales = more sharks!
And NO i'm not saying bring back whaling...!

I don't think theres a food shortage at all, its the fact that there's increasing amount of people using the water for recreational purposes(surfing/diving/swimming/fishing etc) these days and were having more encounters with them.
Shark shield or not..its up to the individual and how hungry that white is on the day and whether you see him before he sees you...

just my 2cents..