Fighting Sharks at Coogee

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 22

Fighting Sharks at Coogee

Protective Net Provides Safety for Bathers ... Scaremongering Rouses Mayor to Protest . . .

OOGEE, the popular SydIjKUI ysSfSr ney bathing resort, has njj combated indignantij- an WuTijrxS 'fill/ assertion made that the uMcSI A-Jr r e c e n t iy - constructed l(CTSfiUißyj sharkproof net across the bay was unsafe and full of holes. The Mayor of Randwick, Aid. J. T. Jennings, is emphatic in his championship of the net. “It is positively absurd to say that ‘surfers are risking their lives in the false security of the Coogee shark net,’ ” he said to a “Guardian” representative. 'T can assure the surf-loving public

that the shark-net is as good as ever it was, and is perfectly safe. “Surfers can bathe with the utmost security within its confines, secure iu the knowledge that no sharks can penetrate the net’s meshes.” Surfers Indignant Members of the Coogee Life-Saving Club were also indignant when they discussed the assertion that there were holes anywhere in the net big enough to enable a shark to cruise into the enclosure. Parties of surf club members made a special inspection of the net. Taking sections, they dived to the bottom of the net for the whole of its length of 200 yards across the bay and reported that it was sound and in good condition. Daily inspection and patrol of the net is made by beach inspectors, and apart from several minor repairs such as replacement of one or two shackles aud a clearing away of seaweed, their task has been uneventful. The inspection consists of a careful under and above water check of the whole of the net, including the steel cables by which it is suspended. It had been asserted that a swimmer dived and swam underwater through a hole in the net. This is not contested by the surf club members or the beach inspectors. But they point out that the hole through which the man swam was in superficial netting on the top of the actual shark net. The only time, they state, that this portion of the net is under water is when an exceptionally strong sea is running, and at highest tides. For Seconds Only Even then, they assert, it is submerged only by two feet of water, and for but a few seconds as the wave sweeps through the net. The presence of hundreds of people in the surf at one time following the alarmist statement was sufficient answer to the scaremongers. “I wouldn't care if there were 1,000 sharks cruising outside,” said a male surfer who was shepherding a family of five in the water, “I’d swim here and bring my kiddies, too.”