Sharks

The shark is still seen as the iconic dangerous predator in Australia. Fear of being attacked by sharks was one of the reasons people in colonial times preferred to swim in rock baths, rather than from the open beach. (Other reasons included a lack of swimming skills and a fear of big waves and strong currents as well as bans in many coastal communities on daylight surf bathing, although not on swimming in ocean baths screened from public view.)

Coastal communities contributed to the risk of shark attacks by putting shark bait into the water in the form of animal carcasses, waste from abattoirs and other industrial processes as well as whaling and fishing. In the early twentieth century, Sydney and Newcastle garbage was taken out to sea on barges for disposal in deep ocean waters, but some of this garbage washed back into shallow waters and up onto the beaches.

From 1870s into the 1920s, Kiama Council disposed of animal carcases by tossing them into the ocean off Blow Hole point. Hundreds of townspeople would gather on the point to watch sharks attack the carcasses and efforts by the townspeople to catch or shoot the sharks. It was regarded as fine entertainment. When Kiama lifesavers protested in the 1920s that this practice increased the risk of shark attacks on surf bathers, Council replied that alternative methods of disposal were too costly, but promised to make greater efforts to ensure the animal carcasses did not float.

When game fishing became popular at places like Sydney and Bermagui, the captured fish (including sharks) were not eaten. Their carcasses were usually simply tossed back into the sea.

The development of the surf lifesaving movement offered some protection against sharks, as did development of a massive shark net at Sydney's Coogee Beach. Shark towers appeared at NSW surf beaches. Even so, in the first 35 or 36 years of the twentieth century, one person died each year while swimming at beaches from Newcastle to Wollongong.

Shark meshing was adopted at Sydney beaches in 1937, suspended during WWII and resumed after the war when it was extended to cover ocean beaches between Wollongong and Newcastle.

Fear of shark attacks helps explain why exploration beneath the sea was so late coming to Australia and why in many cases amateurs did much of the early work. There were few marine scientists and some of them feared the sharks.

When spearfishing became popular after World War II, the spearfishers soon realised that many species of sharks commonly regarded as 'maneaters' were dangerous only when attacked. Growing numbers of scuba divers and surfers began to distinguish between the different varieties of sharks and see themselves as visitors to the shark's world. Along with a growth in marine science, this contributed to a greater understanding of the shark's ecological role.

As interest in marine conservation grew, more people were convinced that the sea required sharks, just as human communities required the garbage collectors and believed that continuing slaughter of sharks would upset the balance of nature. Far from being man-eaters, the placid, slow-moving, grey nurse sharks became regarded as quite graceful in the water and tagged the 'Labradors of the sea' or 'nature's vacuum cleaners'.

In 1984, the New South Wales Government became the first government in the world to declare the grey nurse shark a protected species. In May 1999, the grey nurse shark was listed as a vulnerable, threatened species and in August 2000 as an endangered status. A two-year tagging study along the New South Wales and south Queensland coast showed that the grey nurse population was critically low, with an estimated population of between 300 and 500 individuals.

The NSW government set up 10 critical habitats along the State's coast as grey nurse shark critical habitats to better protect the grey nurse shark in 2002. Special rules on fishing and scuba diving apply to these areas. Breaches of the rules cause community concern. Reports by of a two-metre-long female grey nurse shark with a fishing spear lodged in the back of its head seen inside the 200 metre critical habitat zone at Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs prompted questions in the NSW parliament about investigating and prosecuting 'the perpetrator of this crime'. Penalties of up to $220,000 now apply to anyone who illegally harms a grey nurse shark.

The greatest threat to the endangered sharks is now accidental capture by recreation and commercial fishers as fishing hooks in a shark's mouth may prove fatal.

The NSW Government does not propose to remove the shark meshing from the 51 beaches at which the nets are now installed. Even so, shark meshing has become a debatable practice, because of the sharks and other animals killed by shark nets. Efforts made to deter animals from becoming entangled in the nets include attaching pingers to warn marine life such as dolphins and whales about the existence of the nets. During the winter, when whales migrate along the NSW coast, the nets are taken down.

Nowdays, spotter planes can identify sharks near beaches and relay warnings to lifesavers, who can set off their shark alarms as needed. Any shark alarm still clears people rapidly from the water at surf beaches.

Waves can and do wash sharks into ocean pools, though this is rare. Reports of shark bites in ocean pools in Sydney's eastern suburbs in the last few years include:
- a swimming instructor at Wylies Baths at Coogee, who was bitten while trying to return a wobbegong shark to the sea after it was washed into the pool, and
- a man swimming in the Bogey Hole at Bronte, who was bitten on the arm by a gummy shark. Lifesavers couldn't remove the shark from his arm, but severed the shark's body from its head and arranged for the man to be taken to hospital for treatment. The injured swimmer took the shark's body with him in a plastic bag, so he could make a meal of the shark later.

Fishers and pranksters have also put sharks into ocean pools to scare bathers. This probably accounts for the shark seen a few years ago in the rock pool that was once the men's baths at Wollongong  and the sharks in various ocean pools along Sydney's northern beaches in the 1950s.

Sharks seen along the NSW coast include:

- Wobbegongs (Also known as carpet sharks because of their mottled skin, these are found in inshore waters where rocks and weed are prominent. They can reach three metres in length and weigh more than 70 kilograms. While wobbegongs are not considered dangerous in normal circumstances, they can become aggressive if disturbed and can reach back and bite a hand holding their tail.)

- Gummy sharks (Not considered dangerous in normal circumstances.)

- Grey nurse sharks (Once feared as man-eaters, but now not considered dangerous in normal circumstances despite their fearsome-looking teeth. Hunted in the early 1900s for their flesh, skin and liver, grey nurse sharks are endangered species under both NSW and Commonwealth protection.)

- Mako sharks (A game fish.)

- Great White sharks (Once a game fish, but now declared a endangered species.)

Further Information

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