SHARK MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 March 1929, Page 2

SHARK MENACE

ON SYDNEY BEACHES.

GREAT HAUL BY NETS,

SYDNEY, March 28,

The shark menace on the Sydney benches is being tackled in a new and apparently effective way. At Bond the other day twenty-nine of the monsters were caught off the beach in nets and shot dead with a revolver as the v were hauled out of the water. It was the biggest haul of sharks ever mad off the suburban beaches, and gave reckless surfers something very serious to ponder on. Early in the season, when the sharks proved that they were more daring and desperate than usual, the manager of .Marine Industries, Ltd. (.Mr Caldwell), declared that he was convinced that sharks abounded off Bondi because of the offal output through the sewer, and that the nets as used by his firm provided the most effective method of minimising the menace at the beaches. The results fully bore out these statements. One night a special shark fishing boat laid two nets off the Bondi beach. They were each 1000 feet long and practically met at the centre of the beach, just beyond the first line of breakers. The following morning, with the assistance of another bout, the catch was gathered.

When the nets were raised a dozen surfers who, in surf boats and canoes, had put out to watch the operations paddled away very, very quietly for the safety of the shore. And even the spectators on the shore were given food ifor thought. For of the twenty-nine sharks that were caught at least six were big man-eaters—one tiger, grey nurses, and a whaler. Jhe tiger was a veritable monster, 11 feet in length, with a huge girth, and weighed 8001 b. Such a shark could swallow a man in two bites. Like the other big man-eaters, it had to be shot before its capturers could handle it or attempt to haul it on board. While helpless in the nets the sharks were terribly mutilated by other wolves of the deep. the companj will continue its campaign against the sharks, which are treated commercially, and the manager says that the nets will be set closer to the shore in order to catch the largest species. That reads like encouraging the surler to keep out of the water. Nevertheless, it is becoming more and more apparent that the public is determined to surf in spite of the shark menace. Therefore it seems inevitable that the various Councils must face the problem of making the beaches safe. Costs of schemes already considered are heavy, but it s held by many that the cost cannot be permitted to stand in the way. Bondi has just spent £150,000 on beach improvements, but it neglected the greatest improvement of all, the provision of a shark-proof bathing area. The 'annual revenue to the Council from the Bondi bench is not less than £3500, and it is increasing.