SYDNEY BEACHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1943, Page 6

SYDNEY BEACHES

. PERIL FROM SHARKS

.0.C.) SYDNEY, January 13. Against the wishes of the New South Wales Cabinet, two boats which for five years have been shark-meshing off 21 Sydney surfing beaches have been ; taken over by the Federal Government Meshing will now cease. Only recently the State Government renewed the meshing contract for 12 months tor £5350. The contractor, Captain C. R Stuart, said that he had employed 12 men for five years meshing for sharks. "In the summer we often caught as many as 25 to 30 off one beach,'' he said. "The meshing also frightened away lots of sharks. The nets were made of manilla trawl twine braided by hand on to ropes They had lead sinkers on the bottom | and glass floats on top. with two anchors to each net. The boats were required to sink the nets and bring them in for overhaul and repair. When j the State Government renewed my contract m December. 1 spent several [ thousand pounds in new gear, which is now useless It seems unfair to take boats which are necessary for useful work, when so many people are still allowed to use launches for pleasure." Sharks are more plentiful along the | beaches and in the harbours than for ' many years. Amateur fishermen are catching them every day in Sydney harbour on set lines. One of these fishermen is 15-year-old Jack Hodgson who has some good catches to his credit He was setting his lines last Sunday when he saw Robert Laws, 32, who cannot swim, fall from a jetty into the water, "I knew the spot was a hunting ground for sharks," said Hodgson, "I caught three there last week." Throwing off his shirt, Hodgson rani 300 yards to the jetty, and diving in j rescued Laws, who was on the point of drowning. Laws recovered after treatment. |