Shark el Sheikh

By Dan Hutton on December 15, 2010 in News

Summer is here so it’s not surprising that shark attack stories are beginning to fill the pages of the nation’s newspapers.

Notably, due to the absence of attacks and sightings in local waters, reporters have been sourcing stories from as far away as Egypt to fill their daily quota of fishy fear mongering.

There have also been a couple of close calls north of the border too, one in particular which led to the straightening of a 13mm thick, 36cm long shark hook – that’s about as thick as a man’s finger and as long has his forearm. The perpetrator was allegedly a five-metre Great White, which was wreaking havoc around Stradbroke Island’s Main Beach.

Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries Rural and Regional Queensland Tim Mulherin stated the bleeding obvious when he proclaimed in a statement, “The force needed to straighten a hook of this size would be immense.”

So while Makos and Oceanic Whitetips are severing limbs over in Sharm el Sheikh and Great Whites are putting panel beaters out of business in Queensland, do we really need to be soiling the budgie smugglers down here in Bondi?

The answer, quite simply, is no, assuming you take the right precautions. If you attempt the Bondi to Bronte with a sheep’s carcass strapped to your back you can probably expect some unwanted piscatorial attention. The same goes if you take to the water at dawn and dusk, after heavy rain when the water is murky, or when there are large schools of fish about.

If you’re still having doubts, one local surfer defines the case in point. Bondi’s Glenn Orgias lost an arm, and very nearly his life, when a nosey Noah decided to go in for a quick taste test while Glenn surfed at the south end of Bondi in February 2009.

Despite this, Orgias is back in the water doing his thing (albeit with a specially designed fin that allows him to paddle effectively with his severed left limb).

If Glenn Orgias can conjure the cojones to get back out in the briny then you’ve really got no excuses.