Taronga Zoo shark expert says sharks are ‘misunderstood’
Part of the Australian Shark Attack File team based at Taronga Zoo, Dr Phoebe Meagher is part of a team working to identify the causes of unprovoked shark attacks in an effort to protect both humans and the species she loves.
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BEING cast — almost adrift — into shark-infested waters and watching a fin circle your raft might not be a cherished childhood memory for most, but for Phoebe Meagher it sparked a lifelong fascination with the deadly creatures.
“I probably saw Jaws when I was way too young, but I was lucky enough to have a beach shack on Kangaroo Island in South Australia,” she said.
“It’s very isolated, very remote and you have seals coming up on the beach and a really high population of great white sharks as well.
“I do have a distinct memory of being tied to this little flotation device with a rope and my mum pushed me and my friend out into the ocean — mum held onto the end of the rope — and I just saw this shark fin coming up.
“It was just circling us and we were screaming our heads off and my mum’s pulling us in. I was about nine.”
Today, Dr Meagher, 36, feeds her curiosity about sharks as part of a new generation of keepers of the Australian Shark Attack File (ASAF), based at Taronga Zoo in Mosman. She holds a PhD in marine biology and marine science, among other qualifications.
Dr Meagher is co-curator of the ASAF with Rodd Stapley.
The other members of the shark team are: Richard Buzas, Jo Day and David Slip. The now retired John West started the database.
The ASAF has been recording information about shark-human encounters in Australian waters for more than 35 years. Records date back to 1791 and feature more than 1060 incidents. The file includes instances without physical injury.
The database provides source material for research, media and educational purposes.
Taronga keeps Port Jackson sharks part-time as part of a conservation research project with Macquarie University. The research complements the ASAF to improve the knowledge of shark patterns in Australia.
Dr Meagher said working on the ASAF has been “an eye opener”.
“I’ve always been about the beauty of the sharks and conserving sharks,” she said.
“So, it’s been really interesting to hear about the other side of it, from the victim’s point of view.
“I have always been interested in the ocean and conservation. I ended up second-in-charge of curating the sharks at Manly Oceanworld.
“I looked after the largest captive population of grey nurse, did all the hand feeds and just fell in love with them.
“I have done the great white shark dives off Port Lincoln. I’ve spent a lot of time in the water with sharks and stingrays.”
In the past decade, the ASAF has recorded 211 shark attacks: 150 are classified as “unprovoked” and 61 as “provoked”.
An unprovoked encounter is where a shark is in its natural habitat and has made a determined attempt to bite a person, who is not engaged in provocative activities.
A provoked incident is where a person attracts or initiates physical contact with a shark (accidentally or on purpose); or was fishing for, spearing, stabbing, feeding, netting or handling a shark; or where the shark was attracted by activities such as fishing, spearfishing, commercial diving and cleaning of captured fish.
Dr Meagher said the ASAF kept data on both types of incidents.
“We delve deeper into the details of the unprovoked attacks, because they are the ones we are more interested in,” she said.
“Why do sharks attack? Are there patterns?”
There has been an increase in shark attacks, but Dr Meagher said the issue was complex and involved contributing factors such as more people in the water and people staying in the water for longer because of better wetsuit technology.
“There’s also social media: 50 years ago if someone got attacked, no one would hear about it, but now, as soon as someone gets a little scratch from a wobbegong it’s all over, it’s viral,” she said.
The average number of unprovoked shark attacks per year in Australia is 0.9, based on 50 years of data.
In the past 10 years of unprovoked attacks, 98 of the 150 attacks have involved great white sharks, 13 wobbegongs and 10 bull sharks.
More than half of all unprovoked attacks involve people surfing.
Dr Meagher said sitting on a surfboard was not aggravating or enticing a shark. But she recalled being “a bit shocked” when she discovered that surfers featured in the data.
“I don’t surf, but my husband does and my son does. We have just come back from a holiday in Byron Bay, where my son and husband were out surfing. I was like, ‘Don’t think about the stats that you know!’” she said.
“But that being said ... you are more likely to die from being hit by lightning. It’s very, very rare you are going to be bitten by a shark. Sharks just get this really bad reputation.”
Dr Meagher dismissed the myth that “all sharks are man-eating monsters”.
“They do cause injury to humans and we have to be considerate of that, but they are not out to get humans,” she said.
Dr Meagher, however, is partial to popular wildlife documentary series River Monsters. “I love that show! I think, how cool, look at all these species Jeremy Wade’s finding and learning about,” she said.
“So, I think there are advantages to those shows because they’re engaging people and showing a diverse range of animals.”
But Dr Meagher said people needed to put the idea of a “monster” into perspective.
“Humans kill about 100 million sharks every year and we are not up there as ‘Human Monsters’! So, you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt,” she said.
Visit taronga.org.au/conservation/conservation-science-research/australian-shark-attack-file for details.
LOWER NORTH SHORE ATTACKS AND BEYOND
March 2, 2000
Athol Bay, male, age unknown, swimming, survived, unprovoked.
January 17, 1955
Balmoral Beach, male, 13, hunting lobsters, fatal, unprovoked.
January 19, 1919
Sirius Cove, male, 13, wading, fatal, unprovoked.
January 1, 1915
Sirius Cove, male, 17, bathing, fatal, unprovoked.
NSW STATISTICS
NSW has the highest recorded attacks in the past 10 years and almost double any other state: 100 recorded attacks, 70 of which are classified as “unprovoked”.
The highest number of recorded attacks in NSW for the past 10 years is from the Northern Rivers region.
There were seven reported attacks in Sydney in the past 10 years. By contrast, more people have died taking selfies or by lightning, however, than by shark attacks.
SYDNEY’S MOST RECENT SHARK ATTACK
