Killer sharks stalk Australian beaches

“The mood here is one of fear. We’re waiting for the next attack. Can you imagine what that’s like?" said surfer Don Munro.

A great white shark is seen from the safety of a steel cage in the Indian Ocean, Gansbaai in South Africa. Great white sharks have killed two people and seriously mauled two others off the north coastShow more

BALLINA, AUSTRALIA // Don Munro moved to the New South Wales north coast “for the great Aussie waves” 30 years ago.

The former Sydney resident, who has been surfing for more than 60 years, used to plunge into the ocean most days. Now, however, he has not surfed in more than a month.

“It’s just too dangerous,” he said. “The sheer number of sharks and all the attacks.”

Since September last year, when British expatriate Paul Wilcox was fatally bitten while swimming in shallow water at Byron Bay, north of Ballina, great white sharks have killed two people and seriously mauled two others off the north coast, described by one local as "the world shark hot spot".

The second fatality was in February, when Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara was attacked off Ballina’s Shelly Beach.

Then in July, bodyboarder Matthew Lee was badly mauled at neighbouring Lighthouse Beach, and a surfer, Craig Ison, was attacked at Evans Head, suffering serious injuries.

In the past six weeks alone, more than a dozen surfers have been knocked off their boards.

Shark attacks came into focus worldwide in July when Australian surfer Mick Fanning – a three-time world champion – was knocked off his board during the World Surf League in South Africa. Fanning fought off the circling shark with his fists before being rescued and taken to shore.

Authorities in Ballina have tried to reassure residents and visitors by conducting aerial surveillance off popular beaches. But near daily sightings of great whites up to six metres long, and another serious attack last weekend at Port Macquarie, further south, have fuelled anxieties as tourism businesses gear up for the peak summer season.

The mayor of Ballina, David Wright, has compared himself to “the mayor in the Jaws movie”.

Last week, three of the feared predators were spotted skulking off favoured surf spots, including Lennox Head, the sleepy resort village where Mr Munro lives. Sharks have been seen just 10 metres from the shore.

The community wants to fight back, with surfers and business people voting “almost unanimously” for a cull, according to Mr Munro.

With great whites classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the state government rejected that call. Instead, it announced a tracking and tagging programme aimed at finding out why the sharks are congregating in certain spots.

With school holidays starting in September and the spring surfing season about to begin, locals are still wary. Holiday bookings have already been cancelled, and surf shops are reporting steep falls in business.

Chris Brock lives only metres from Lennox Point, one of Australia’s most famous surfing breaks, but now ventures into the ocean only occasionally, and never alone.

“Right at the moment, I’m a little bit spooked,” he said. “Everyone I know is a bit spooked.”

Last month, he saw a surfer knocked off his board. “It was like a big explosion of white water,” he said. “The guy was on a lifting swell and I think that must have taken him just out of the shark’s reach. He got on the next wave and came straight in to the rocks.”

For Australian surfers, sharks are an ever-present hazard. But no one on the north coast, which is 800 kilometres from Sydney, can remember a situation like this. The state government’s chief shark expert, Vic Peddermors calls it “unprecedented”.

Although some are still brave enough to venture into the surf, many locals – particularly those with children – are travelling further north to surf off Queensland’s Gold Coast, where the beaches are protected by drum lines (baited traps) and nets.

Mr Munro said demands for a cull were driven by “sheer frustration and a need for something to be done immediately”.

“What price do you put on a human life and on our tourism industry?” he asked.

“The mood here is one of fear. We’re waiting for the next attack. Can you imagine what that’s like? It’s horrible, and it’s exacerbated by the thought that the next one could be a kid.”

However, callls for a cull have stirred deep controversy. Daniel Bucher, a marine ecologist at the local Southern Cross University, said it would not be effective.

“If you take a few out, they’ll just be replaced by another couple the next day,” he said.

“There’s never going to be a zero risk. It’s a wild environment, not a swimming pool, and there are wild animals out there.”

He believes the spate of attacks and sightings could be due to a combination of factors, including unusually warm and nutrient-rich water.

A bitterly contested culling trial in Western Australia, which followed a series of attacks by great whites off the state’s beaches, was abandoned last year after the Environmental Protection Agency expressed concern about its impact on the species.

The federal scientific agency, the CSIRO, recently estimated that there are 700 to 1,200 great whites in Australian waters.

Mr Munro said a way needed to be found for surfers and sharks to coexist without killing each other.

“At the moment the strike rate is all in favour of the sharks,” he said. “They’ve taken more humans right here than we’ve taken of them.”