Talk about a bad rap
by John Curnow, Global Editor, SailWorldCruising.com 1 Aug 10:00 NZST
Bait Ball © Dr Riley Elliott
For whenever you think you have it bad, ponder these guys. Now rather than just the whole of them, it really comes down to the Big Four, albeit the stature of one of them is nowhere near as big as its reputation. In fact, you might need up to seven of them to get to the same sort of size as the biggest of its cousins.
These guys command your attention and respect. Fail to do so at your own peril, which is kind of why they have built the kind of notoriety they have. It's a bit like a Bushranger or Outlaw. Does not take so long to earn it, but is nigh on impossible to shake it off once attained. As a parallel, you would think a plane fell out of the sky every time we showed up at an airport. Such is the hysteria that these sorts of things bring about.
So that would make the subject matter, sharks. More specifically, these four: the Tiger, Great White Pointer, Mako, and Bull.
If you are old enough, the latter and much smaller of the group was only ever known as a humble little Whaler. My, my. How wrong we were, for there is nothing humble nor little about the Bull's infamy built on tenacity and ferociousness.
A wee film in the 70s did so much to elevate awareness of sharks, and you could rightly argue that the awareness went so far as to go to paranoia. Ironically, the incredibly famous Ron and Valerie Taylor captured all the live action footage for the film that possibly set back all their best efforts for ocean conservation from then until now. BTW, Valerie is still alive and works tirelessly in the name of the big blue.
Time to cue New Zealand's Dr Riley Elliott, a surfer, diver, sailor, a lover of the ocean, and one person you can definitely go to for the real deal on the apex predator. He is a Marine Biologist and collected his PhD for his work on and with sharks (specifically Blue Sharks). Little wonder then that he is known as the 'Shark Man'.
"My main thing is to get as much imagery out there about sharks as I can. The GoPros let me take you where I go, and to see the whole environment that we go into when we take to the water, which is their home, not ours," said Elliott.
"We generally refer to the Big Three, as it turns out; Tiger, Great Whiter Pointer, and Mako (pronounced 'Marko' from the Maori name BTW). These are the three deadliest for sure."
"The Mako is a species I study, which not many people do around the globe, and I specialise in swimming with them, especially the big ones. The Mako is the jet fighter, whereas the Blue is the glider, and the two are always found together."
"In my eyes the Mako is the deadliest shark on earth. They're like a UFC cage fighter, and they have so much potential. So the reason why they're so fast and aggressive is because they have to catch stuff in super clear water. Unlike a Great White or a Bull shark where they can ambush it, for there's no ambushing in 100-metre visibility water."
"This is why they have to be so fast. It is why their attitude is, hit something, ask questions later. Also, this is what makes them really dangerous to swim with, and why I eventually started using cages out there with the big ones, especially after having become a father. The reason they aren't up there in the attack list is because we don't generally swim out where they live."
Now the Mako has been known to jump and smash the back of boats clean off. OK, not really big boats, but still, it would be both amazing and horrific to watch. Their feats of acrobatic prowess are quite legendary. Make no mistake, they are fast and powerful, with unheralded sprint pace (think 40 knots, no less).
"Yes, this is the Mako attitude. I've heard stories where they get hooked, and start running away, then turn, come back and just rip off the back of your boat, or jump into it. Now, I'm impressed by an attitude like that, because number one it's showing you that it's got confidence. It's got balls. It's saying, 'How dare you come out here and try and do this to me!' The other side of it also is people are winding these things in on a rod closer and closer to the boat, so what do you expect is going to happen?"
"This is either pure intent, showcasing that awesome attitude the Mako has, which should be respected, or it's human malice where we're drawing this animal towards the boat and it ends up in the boat. So, is that an attack?"
"Ultimately, the Mako shark is incredibly powerful, incredibly impressive, and an incredibly capable animal. I have done multiple documentaries on the biggest in the world, and each one simply confirms this, and their ranking in the top tier. We just don't go swimming generally where they're hunting, and that's the difference between them and the other three."
Rack 'em up
So has there been a shift in the rankings? "Well, yes. The bottom end guys, like the bull shark is becoming the more commonly deadly one. As we have caused more industrialisation, more housing, and more sedimentation, we've reduced fish populations, and we've reduced good habitat."
"Those environmental factors are things that catalyse Bull shark attacks specifically, because bad visibility, them looking for food, where there used to be food, but there isn't now, but there's us; these are deadly circumstances, and that's exactly what I did a show on this year in New Caledonia."
Moving on, and Tiger Sharks have long been considered the trash can of the universe. At Cid Harbour in the Whitsunday Islands, Tigers have been attributed to attacks there, which being shallow is not at all Tiger type territory (they are very bulky, not svelte like the Mako), but the waste coming off cruising boats has 'taught' them a new behaviour.
Sharks are not stupid. We have seen that Great Whites off the coast of California and in the Great Australian Bight can learn how to jump for seals like they do off the coast of South Africa.
"It's human factors again. Tigers are part of the Whaler family. They learn habits like a dog; very quickly, especially if food is involved. Add in poor visibility and it is a match made in heaven for them, not us."
Join the dots together for yourself and you see that we are absolute idiots for swimming at twilight and dawn in shark waters or shark potential waters.
"Here in New Zealand we have anchorages where as soon as an anchor goes down, the sharks appear, and this is because people fillet their fish and dispose of the frame overboard. Q.E.D."
"Now most sharks are smart and can see and know what we are. However, they can get what I call FOMO. The fear of missing out, and they might bite something they otherwise wouldn't. The best thing you can do is recognise that we shouldn't teach predators bad habits, and then jump in right on top of them."
"I think this is a good segue then to the Great White; the deadliest of them all. Statistically they kill more people than any other shark species, which is largely because they're much bigger, their teeth are much sharper and severing in structure. Their attack approach is so much more forceful than an investigatory bite, and to be frank, it's because the places where surfers go are remote and far away from emergency services, like Western Australia, for example, versus the Gold Coast. You're right there, there's lifeguards, there's everyone to help you if a bull shark were to bite you."
Us or them, or everyone all in?
So it is a multitude of factors, but it's also because there's an overlap between us and them in the scenario where most attacks happen, which is where they're hunting seals. They're just hitting these things at a hundred percent of full force. They're trying to take a severing bite that makes the seal bleed out. They leave it for 15 minutes, so that it doesn't scratch the shark's eyes out, and they can come back to a free meal. Think about it, a blind shark has no chance of survival.
"Usually, fellow humans have rescued the person, but if you're in a remote place, your risks go up. So Great Whites are deadlier just because of their physical capabilities, because of their attack approach, and because where we are overlapping with them is where they're hunting."
"Now you go to a different scenario, though, a different demographic of the Great White, like Forster in New South Wales, or Southern California, which are juvenile kind of areas. The attacks, even though you have more of them, are from small sharks taking a nibble, making a mistake, and thankfully the emergency services are there."
"However, the main aspect is that surfers, like myself, dress up like seals in rubber suits, paddle way offshore to remote areas where the seals are and Great Whites hunt them. Now you look like prey, you're going to get treated like prey, and that is the risk surfers are willing to take because it's a beautiful sport," said Dr Elliott.
Note here that all ocean escapees need to be pro shark. We are entering their territory, and they are atop the whole ecosystem.
"The General Public does not get to have our perspective, get to understand their role in nature, which is why creating imagery showing humans in the water with a shark is so crucial. I've swum with all the sharks, everywhere in the world, and I'm still here, with all my pieces in the correct places. When people get to see this, which is where my GoPros really come into their own, you get a perception shift straight away."
"Creating stimulating visual imagery makes for science. It is huge risk, but the reward is the success when it comes to what was once the most feared animal on earth. I feel we have come such a long way since the 70s. You have more chance of being taken out by a horse, a cow, snake, spider, bear, or a ram than you do a shark. The fear of the unknown still exists, but what I try and do is take people with me, emotions and all, like when a shark goes under me when I am surfing."
"The beauty of modern technology is that we can tell stories in the first person."
"When I go diving, sharks do not care about me at all. Spear a fish, however, and watch it just 'turn on'. The vision makes that possible, and then change of attitude follows suit."
So let's look at a helicopter view. Here in Australia, we average four shark-based fatalities per annum, even all the way back to the Rodney Fox era. It hasn't changed over time despite population increase and so on and so forth. You'd have to think that education has had a part in that, but there is one subject we've not even mentioned, as yet.
That would be Shark nets and drumlines that certain parts of the media gravitate to as compulsively as they do the next glass of white wine. These 'deterrents' are woeful, because if you showed all the turtles and dolphins that got killed in them, I wonder if they'd still be so keen to have them.
That means it is time to explore electronic means, which can be person based, or offer a wider field of interference, which is the very thing sharks do not like.
"One of the biggest issues is political. Imagine the backlash when nets are taken out and the next fatality occurs, because they do occur and will continue to happen. Education is working, and certainly seeing the whales caught in gear is also helping to bring forth change. Maybe just not swiftly enough. New South Wales is doing more tagging, and as a result we are learning more and more about these glorious creatures, but they go over the border into Queensland and get killed."
"I used to test the Shark Shield by Ocean Guardian, and I admire what they've done. It is probably the only scientifically tested deterrent. It is something you should use if you want to reduce your risk. We use them on film shoots all the time, as part of our health and safety policy."
A final edict
"Everyone gets to make a choice on what they do and how they act. My goal is to ensure that they have the most information to make that decision, because not everyone is a specialist in shark behaviour or understanding the ocean. Consider a sailor - with better weather forecasting and ocean tidal activity comes better choices. Stay in your lane and swim in a pool, or if you want to ramp it up, you go surfing around seal colonies. It's a choice."
"Ecologically, and scientifically it's been proven that we need sharks in the ocean. They maintain a healthy ecosystem, which we rely on directly for food and oxygen, also for the pleasure we derive from utilising it as users."
"All the people of the world need to appreciate more what the ocean does and what the animals in it do. Education is critical, and we need to be careful about just how deadly something really is, rather than get carried off on some tangential notion. The bias is changing through sharing science, and through sharing the ecological value of an animal. We need to appreciate the vulnerability of all creatures and how it relates to us."
"We must have a mutual respect and understanding for all to survive in the natural world. The modern world has meant we are removed from so much. Just look at how our products are made from places out of sight, and therefore out of mind."
"Sailing is analogous with the first statement, because when you are undertaking a passage you are reliant on only that you with you. You have to work within the realms of wind and weather, dangerous animals, yourselves - your personal, social, human relationships, all on this one tiny planet. You work to the ecosystem. You're respectful, yet vulnerable, taking risks, but striving and using human intellect to overcome them. This is the magic of it all."
"Don't litter. Take what you brought. Get that moral grounding of nature back in your life. Your actions could have an effect on someone else or some other ecosystem, but at the end of the day, it all comes full circle and you know, it will eventually come back to you."
"Most of all, don't be brazen."
If you want to see what is happening in the other Hemisphere, go to the top of the SailWorldCruising home page and the drag down menu on the right, select the other half of the globe and, voila, it's all there for you.
Finally, stay safe, and let's see where it all goes now,
John Curnow