Isn't it enough now...?

[svthom]

Living in Western Cape area, South Africa, can have it's fair share of excitement every now and then. Like my wifes duck'n dive in a shoot out at the local petrolstation. There has always been peace and quiet at the beach house. It's been a hideaway from the regular day. But now, our quality of live is rapidly declining also here.
We have spotted a submarine (Big White Shark), and it's obviously patroling the waters.
Out here, we've been used to dive from the cliffs, swim, surf, scuba and kayak. We don't do it anymore. Neighter does the neighbors. And we miss it, the kids miss it, the dog miss it...
My question is: How much restrainment do we have to put on our lifes, for the sake of having that killer swimming around out there?

This is the situation all over South Africa. Wild life conservation do directly interfere with our way of life.

I say: Let's start killing some of the big whites and get the numbers down. Open up for commercial big white game fishing, and cash in big $$$. Make the beaches safe!!

 

[Mike Veitch]

So lets see here. WOuld you also agree that open season should be called upon those who make your wife duck at the petrol station? Its nature pal, if you don't like it....move to Greenland

 

[Brian Gilpin]

So lets see here. WOuld you also agree that open season should be called upon those who make your wife duck at the petrol station? Its nature pal, if you don't like it....move to Greenland

Hey I am a conservationist but I have got to sympathize with this guy. How many of us want mountain lions roaming in our schoolyards? But hey that's nature too. Of course I have to wonder how dangerous the sharks are to humans. We have a lot of the GWs here locally as well but actual attacks are not very common. Not that I would intentionally get in the water close to one.

 

[Mike Veitch]

Seems to me there was another S.African with a post on here just last week who was in absolute awe with his encounter with a Whitey.

Don't get me started on the whole cougar in the schoolyard bit, you don't like it? Stop wiping out their natural territory and building a house...but then again "hey overpopulation of our world is nature too..."

 

[DeepBlueResort]

To Mike

I agree with EVERYTHING you are saying, and I bet are thinking as well LOL

 

[scubaculture]

The killer? What can we call our species then?

You saw a White Shark, lucky you. Now go swimming, its not out to get you and the chances are minute.

 

[Scuba65]

Thanks Mike...for saying that ...i was going to respond at first..but, i kept my mouth shut cause it would of gotten ugly. I feel the same way..if you don't like it move. and as to the comment of mountain lions in the backyard etc. ya, if people would be tearing down their natural habitat their wouldn't be such problems. I live in Boston, and there are areas that bears are coming into yards, coyotes etc. Well, if these damn people would stop building condos to make $$$ then their wouldn't be such problem. so, these animals have to pay the consequences by dying for someone to make $$$$. please!

 

[RIOceanographer]

People's fear of sharks is completely disproportionate to the actual number of attacks (and especially fatal attacks). In 2004 there were just 7 reported fatal shark attacks in the entire world for all species of shark combined. Just 1 of those was in South Africa where the original poster is from. And that was a relatively normal year. Somehow those odds don't scare me too much.

Here is a site that has the detailed shark attack statistics:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/isaf/isaf.htm

 

[Ishie]

Out here, we've been used to dive from the cliffs, swim, surf, scuba and kayak. We don't do it anymore. Neighter does the neighbors. And we miss it, the kids miss it, the dog miss it...
My question is: How much restrainment do we have to put on our lifes, for the sake of having that killer swimming around out there?

Your ability to recreate has been stifled by your apprehension about a shark that is inhabiting its natural environment, and not just doing so, but has no other place it's going to go. In addition to that, the shark is likely not a big threat to you, though I have to say honestly I wouldn't go in the water where I had just seen a GW, though I would in an area where they have been.

You are a visitor in their habitat. You do not require activities in the ocean to survive but they cannot survive out of the ocean. As a land mammal, when you enter the ocean, you do so with an understanding that you are out of your element. You are not *supposed* to be there. You are small, vulnerable, ill-equipped for the environment, and subject to a number of dangers that can be made worse by your instincts as a land mammal (such as holding your breath on the way up). Given this, actually, a shark is the least of your worries.

I dive off California, which is another great white hotspot. The Farallons is about 26 miles offshore, and is one of the few places (besides So. Africa), that you can see massive sharks actually breach. It's a bit unnerving. We also hold some of the higher numbers for shark attacks, which is still low compared to your chances of dying by a coconut related injury. Though I didn't know the man since I joined the dive club right after he died, we had a man here, Randy Fry, killed within the last year by a GWS, and he was local.

It is a tragedy. It was also a tragedy when ab divers get sucked out to sea and die of exposure/drowning, a tragedy when a diver panics and bolts for the surface holding their breath. We accept these risks when we enter the water.

That being said, you can also evaluate the situation logically. Great Whites are an apex predator. Removing them causes a chain reaction through the ecosystem and these changes can negatively effect us. For one thing, loss of GWs may mean an increase in other apex predators, so you can get your fill of tigers and makos instead. Culling all of the seal-eating sharks, which tend to be the most dangerous to us, could produce a pinniped explosion which subsequent depletes the fish stocks, which directly impacts us.

Culling also doesn't really appear to work anyway. You can examine this trend by looking at attack histories in Hawaii where there were regular tiger shark culls following an attack. Didn't really do any good. The 'culprit' was usually miles out to sea by the time the attack started anyway so you cull a bunch of sharks and are left with the same problem. If you do have a "maneater", if such a thing exists, your chances of getting it are extremely slim, and all you're doing is removing its competitors in the area.

Now I'm not sure about your position on elephants, and I am not suggesting slaughtering elephants, though it's done regularly, but elephants are a large land mammal, thus while we can avoid its habitat we can't just "stay off land", incredibly destructive to local agriculture, thus threatening the human food supply, and kill far more people annually than sharks do. Would you suggest eliminating all of them? If not, why not?

 

[docmartin]

there have most likely been GWs around for all those years while you have been swimming, surfing, jumping from cliffs... now because you or others actually saw one you are scared. in reality nothing has changed. keep having fun or move to the mountains. even if you start pursuing GWs you won't get all of them. therefore, you just have to accept the fact that having fun in the ocean brings some risks just as anywhere else. for people who don't like that, there is sea world and disney land.