SURFING IN SYDNEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20014, 3 December 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

SURFING IN SYDNEY

FEAR OF THE SHARK SYDNEY, Nov. 10. One day of summer last week drove thousands to the surf. One shark in sight of the breakers drove thousands home again, vowing that surfing was too risky a game. Years ago the presence of the shark was not much noticed; but he came near to the beaches, which arc now so popular, and 'into Botany Bay and the harbour, in great numbers. The surfers have scared him a bit. The sharks are of the grey nurse variety, which come close into the shallow waters about this time of the year, and until right on to the end of December, not for the purpose of biting surfers unawares, but to 101 l about until their gorged livers get rid of some of the oil which makes them, listless and lazy, so lazy, 'indeed, that one of these days a surfer, finding himself in the vicinity of one of these monsters, will tell how it kindled a kindly feeling in its eyo as he patted it on the back. And, strange to say, he. will not be believed. Each season the shark score has been growing, and surfing is being robbed of much of 'its popularity. As a matter of fact, Sydney surfers, without knowing it, have made areas of pleasure and re-

creation right in the hounds of what was and perhaps still is the greatest shark sanatorium in the world. Just as whales have special grounds to which they migrate at a certain time of the year to browse, so the grey nurse has for centuries made the bays in the vicinity of Sydney its special place to browse, and a few thousand surfers are not going to drive it away. Years ago they used to lie like logs in Botany Bay, from October to December. As many a.s 28 have been hauled out at one fishing. No small task, for as soon as one is hooked they overlie each other to prevent the fisherman hauling it out. What the surfer needs is what industry needs just now, the spreading round of a little more scientific knowledge. It would take the scare out of the beaches, which arc losing much of their popularity.