SHARK MENACE AT SYDNEY GREATER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31188, 12 October 1966, Page 24

SHARK MENACE AT SYDNEY GREATER

(N. Z.P. A.-Reuter) SYDNEY. Australian surfers stand a greater chance of being attacked by a shark than anyone else in the world, statistics show. It is difficult to believe from the carefree attitude of the youngsters who throng the country’s famous east coast beaches that this is so. But it is a fact, and the Shark Research Panel has warned that this summer sharks will present a graver danger to bathers at Sydney beaches than in the past. A panel spokesman has said that already there have been an unusually high number of the vicious and deadly bronze whaler and mako sharks sighted making their way slowly down the east coast of Australia. “As yet we do not know why they are coming, but they certainly are coming, along with other types of exotic fish never seen this far south before,” the spokesman said.

The experts hasten to assure bathers that the ocean off the Australian coast is not full of sharks simply waiting for them to jump into the water however. It is also true that an Australian stands far more chance of

being killed in a car accident and it is even three times more likely that he will be killed by lightning. The Australian has developed a terminology to describe an attack. A victim is never “killed” or “torn to shreds.” Instead the almost biblical term “taken” is used. All the available details of past shark attacks in Australian waters have been I meticulously logged and tabu- : lated, but it has still not ; been possible to formulate . “ideal” conditions under which an attack could occur. The data have revealed ' that the attacks usually take place between mid-December > and April, when the water > temperature is around 70deg ' F at between 2 and • 6 o’clock in the afternoon and in about 3ft of water, I and about 50 yards from the ' shore. But it could be equally argued that these conditions ' are also conducive to a large • number of people being in , the water.