SHARK KNIFE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19767, 15 February 1927, Page 5

SHARK KNIFE

PROTECTION OF BATHERS SYDNEY SURF DANGERS. SYDNEY, Feb. 11. The liatest of Sydney’s many shark tragedies, the poignancy of which was relieved only by the heroism of a youth who is said to have actually got on the shark’s back in an effort to (attack it and save his young mate, has revived the suggestion that the life-savers along Sydney’s beaches should be ‘armed with knives as a moans of fighting the monsters, which are a constant menace to surfers. Once again, however, the suggestion has been coldly received. The attitude of the life-savers is that their job is not to go chasing sharks, but to keep bathers and themselv.es out of the reach of the monsters. In most of the recorded instances of shark tragedies round Sydney, and the toll that the monsters have taken is a tragic one—the sharks have leapt upon their victims, sometimes rising out of the water. The difficulty of repelling such ferocious onslaughts in heavy surf, even when armed with la knife, and given time to draw th c weapon, can be imagined. The life-savers of Sydney are more inclined to pin their faith to thc present system of look-outs, which are posted on the beaches, and which cnlable bathers to be warned when sharks are in sight. Apart from this each of the life-savers’ surf boats is equipped with a shark spear as a mefens of warding off attacks. This spear, which is in the shape of a Zulu lassegai, was used successfully by one of the surf boat crews only recently in repelling an attack by a shark which had left a tooth embedded in the bottom of their bolat. The use of shark knives, however, by life-savers, in the broken waters of the surf, is ridiculed. All sorts of schemes to defeat thc shark have been tried in Sydney, but without success. At Coogce, on o of the most popular of the surfing benches, a net was tried, but it was as gossamer when the seas broke against it and tore it to pieces. Even shark fishing, as an industry is not likely to reduce matorb tally the number of sharks round Sydney, until the aeas that wash upon Its beaches have been exploited for perhaps fifty years or more.