SYDNEY’S SHARK PERIL

Evening Star, Issue 21630, 27 January 1934, Page 9

SYDNEY’S SHARK PERIL

“THOUSANDS IN SURF" MANY IN SHALLOW WATER Two 14ft tiger sharks were caught near Manly, Sydney, one on January 9 at South Steyne, and the other early on the morning of January 10 near the quarantine station. A third shark was caught in Woollooraooloo Bay the same morning with a set-line. There are thousands of sharks in the surf on the metropolitan beaches at this season of the year, according to Mr Charles Messenger, a - well-known shark fisherman. He said that he was surprised there were not more shark tragedies. The sharks followed salmon and other small fish during their annual migration southward from Queensland waters, and were most numerous off the New South Wales Coast about January, February, and March. The small fish came inshore to escape the sharks, the sharks followed. The sharks caught by fishermen on the beaches nearly always took a bait well within the first line of breakers. v

The danger to the public, Mr Messenger said, did not come so much from the large sharks, which usually esuise in couples in fairly deep water, but from the small sharks of five, six, and seven feet in length, which followed small fish into shoal water. In practically every case in which bathers had been- attacked the shark had been of that size. It was almost impossible for the swimmer to see the shark, as only one variety, the hammerhead, cruised about with its fin showing. Many sharks came into the harbour, into bays and inlets frequented by swimmers. Four sharks were seen within 20yds of the beach at Tamarama Bay, between Bronte and Bondi, early one morning recently. The sharks were cruising in the direction of Bondi, and appeared to be in only a few feet of water. .