Shark attack

The search is continuing today for the remains of a teenager taken by two great white sharks off an Adelaide beach yesterday.
The 18-year-old surfboarder, from South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, was grabbed by the arm and pulled under the sea by one of the great whites as he was being towed by a boat off West Beach yesterday afternoon.

We haven’t had a shark victim for 19 years and our talk of our town is why this happened and the shock of it all. Growing up here I can well remember the shark alerts on the radio and television. I don’t seem to hear those anymore. Maybe government cuts don’t heal. We normally have helicopters and the surf life savers keeping watch. I used to live in horror of a shark coming to get me if I went in the water. I got over it!! They are normally spotted very easily but the discussion is why there were two of them and what they were doing and whether to hunt them now. In my experience the sharks are killed, if for no other reason than to put people’s minds at rest. The white sharks, however, are a protected species. I have never known beaches to be closed but I have known the beaches to be cordoned off and more spotters put on. But surf life saving is not the in thing at the moment. It was huge but now it’s been taken over by the paying sports like cricket and football. West Beach is a very popular beach straight down the road from Adelaide airport. We used to have a great drive in cinema there. Parliament is meeting to discuss this this morning and our laws are simply that councils can’t regulate the activities past the shallow shore line. To close the beach it requires police edicts. In the meantime the friends and family have to try and nurse their grief.



Vigilantes warned: don't hunt the killer sharks
By LISA ALLISON
17dec04

VIGILANTES have been warned not to hunt down and kill the Great White sharks involved in yesterday's fatal attack.

Senior Sergeant Bob McDonald, from police water operations, said he advised those looking for vengeance to think twice before they embarked on a mission of revenge.
Killing a shark was against the law and people were most likely to kill the wrong one, Sen-Sgt McDonald said.
"It is human nature to want revenge and this is a very emotive event because of the ferocity of the attack," he said.
"I can appreciate people wanting to do it, but if they do get a shark, it is not lawful and they are probably achieving nothing. There is no way of knowing if they will actually get the right one."
Sen-Sgt McDonald said authorities had no plans to hunt the shark themselves because it would be hard to find them and their first priority was the victim.
"To hunt down two sharks would be an extremely hard task because we don't know where they have gone," he said.
"They could be anywhere."
Great Whites were a protected species and the criteria to gain permission to hunt a shark was "extremely strict" and so far, untested in SA.
"Great Whites are a protected species and only the Government or fisheries are able to issue such advice," Sen-Sgt McDonald said.
A spokesman for acting Premier Kevin Foley said the Government was not commenting on any aspect of a hunt at this stage but was leaving it to police.
Shark expert Andrew Fox said any hunt would likely net the wrong shark and applauded the decision not to hunt at this stage.
"In tragedies such as this there is always speculation about hunting the shark but never has there been any evidence of a `rogue shark' that hunts people," Mr Fox said.
"In most cases they are not likely to attack again."
Mr Fox said the sharks could still be in the area although they were known to travel up to 70km or more a day.
"The fact that there were reports of two sharks suggests to me that they were following a food source or perhaps one shark was following a breeding female," he said.
Sen-Sgt McDonald said the search would resume today.
If a decision is made to kill the sharks, a professional fisherman would be hired.
Twenty West Beach Life Saving Club members were among those helping to find any trace of the victim yesterday.
"We've put three boats into the water and two four-wheel-drives are patrolling the beach hoping to find a survivor," club vice-president Peter Finck said.
"But it's not looking good at this stage."
"Unfortunately there is not much we can do but help in the rescue effort."
Committee members also were discussing whether to continue with club activities this week.
Police also warned beachgoers in the West Beach area to stay out of the water yesterday, but few people still dared to venture out for a paddle in the hours after the attack.
West Torrens Mayor John Trainer, whose council includes West Beach, said the death could have a detrimental effect on the area, a popular spot for holiday-makers and locals.
"A catastrophe like this could naturally cause a great deal of apprehension among beachgoers," he said.
Yesterday's attack was the 20th recorded shark fatality in SA's history.
"There's been 20 fatalities out of 46 attacks in South Australia, that's an unusually high proportion," Mr Fox said.
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