‘We’re going to need a bigger boat’: Huge Great white shark spotted off Palm Beach
VETERAN angler Steve Law and his son were happily fishing off Sydney when they had an encounter with a monster great white shark, which made their boat suddenly feel very small.
NSW
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VETERAN angler Steve Law and his son were happily fishing off Sydney when they had an encounter with a great white shark which made their boat suddenly feel very small.
In his 35 years of fishing Sydney’s northern beaches, Mr Law has never encountered a great white, until he and son Tom were 5km off Palm Beach two weeks ago.
Amid a continuing and emotional debate about whether the protected great white’s numbers are increasing, Mr Law, President of the Narrabeen RSL Fishing club told how he had just landed a 60cm flathead when he noticed something large and dark cruising up beside the boat.
“I dropped down again to try for another flathead and that’s when I first saw the shark on its side coming down from the front of the boat looking directly at me with its eye, which was about the size of a cricket ball.
“’It was holy sh*t. My boat is 5.7 metres long, or 18 foot and he was three quarters the length of the boat about 3.5m,” Mr Law, 54, said.
“We’re going to need a bigger boat,” Tom, 23, piped in, stealing the famous line from the movie Jaws.
“It was eyeing me off and it just stayed there cruising with us. It was pretty awesome to see one in the wild.”
Mr Law said: “I have never encountered a great white before, I have caught mako sharks, hammerhead sharks and all kind of reef sharks before and all released, I am not a shark fisherman or ever target them.
“My son threw some berley in the water but he wasn’t interested and neither was I as I didn’t want him to start chewing on my new motor that I had just had put on. I think he had bigger things on his mind, maybe how do I get these two seals off that rock.”
The shark cruised around the boat for around 10 minutes and took such a liking to the fishing pair, it even followed them as they headed home.
“I got up to about 10 knots and Tom said it’s following us, it was following us in the wake and I took off at full throttle and got out of there,” he said.
As Sydney’s waters warm and baitfish numbers increase, more shark sightings are being reported off the city’s beaches.
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According to the Dorsal App, which logs public sightings, tagged shark “pings” picked up by State government receivers and beach closures by lifeguards, there were 12 “shark encounters” off Sydney in the past 30 days. Long Reef Beach and Dee Why Beach were closed on the morning of December 10.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries is actively tracking 247 great white, 12 tiger and 42 bull sharks that have been fitted with electronic smart tags which set off a series of receivers placed along the coast.
Most tagged great white shark detections this week came from receivers off the NSW mid north coast and central coast at popular holiday beaches like Forster, Crescent Head and Bennetts Beach at Hawks Nest.
The smart tags, and smart drumlins which send information to the DPI when a shark is hooked, are being deployed amid claims by surfers and recreational and commercial fishers, that great white numbers are increasing. There have been 21 shark attacks in NSW since 2015, including three fatalities, Great whites have been protected since the late 1990s.
The Senate Report into Shark Mitigation and Deterrent Measures handed down earlier this month found that despite millions spent on research projects, exact numbers of great whites in Australian waters are still unknown.
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In 2014 CSIRO estimated there were between 750 and 1,200 breeding adult white sharks for the eastern Australia population but the figure did not include juveniles.
A CSIRO spokesman said a major study of the population status of Australasian great white sharks is complete but it not ready public release.
“Our report and research publication are going through the final stages of scientific and editorial review. This process is not within CSIRO’s control, but necessary in order to ensure the information meets the highest international standard,” he said.
Marine biologist Dr Daniel Bucher said the true count of great white sharks is still a mystery.
“We have a better idea of trends regarding numbers and the best indicator is how many get caught in nets in Sydney,” Dr Bucher said.
There are 51 beaches I the shark meshing program and according to the Department of Primary Industries’ annual report for 2016-17 22 great white sharks were caught in nets, much lower than numbers caught in the 1950s when the program was first introduced.
“There is still no argument for taking them off the threatened species list,” Dr Bucher said.
Currently up to 100 “SMART drumlins” are being tested and trialled along the NSW coast a spokeswoman for the Department of Primary Industries said.
In the past three months, 102 great white sharks have been caught by the drum lines off the NSW coastline.
In November, 28 white sharks were caught, in October, 37 were caught and in September 37 were also caught.
The Senate report recommended all shark nets be replaced with SMART drum lines.