🌊 How Do You Feel About Shark Nets?

What does the fatal shark attack of Mercury Psillakis mean for net removals?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
When I heard of the shark attack on Mercury Slacis
at Long Reef Beach, it just there were so many
emotions that came up.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Firstly, like what a tragedy form to happen to him?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
But also when something like that happens, you think, well,
I spent a lot of time in the surf and
I've never really thought about shark attack.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
It's just because this is a beach we don't expect.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
And that's the thing, because it happened in Long Reef.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Sometimes when you hear about shark attacks, it's over in
Western Australia, all those sharky areas in South Australia, or
even right up north.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
You don't think it's going to be happening in our
in our environs. And when you.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Look at Long Reef to Cronulla. I'm always at Cronulla,
but I just you know.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
But there were shark nets too, and in the news.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Lately, yeah, and then there's a lot of talk about
removing shark nets.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
And whether they do more harm than good. Well, you know,
because they.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Get sea turtles and they get seals and they get
everything else. It's a big catchment area. But also, they
stopped hunting sharks a long time ago. We used to
kill them all the time, and things have changed.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
There's more people in the water.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
And this is but this doesn't help out Mercury's family
in anything, and that just you know, that's the thing.
I remember being at Cronulla Point some years ago and
I was with a mate. We were both on our
stand up boards and it was just the two of
us and he said, what was that?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And I said, that's just a dolphin And then I
saw the dorsal. That's a dolphin. That's a shark, and
it was a great white shark, was a it was
a fairly large shark. And I remember the cheapers, is
that what it was? Well, that's what they're saying.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
It was a you know, yeah, And I don't want
to go into any details about it because it's so distressing.
But you know, on Sunday I usually go out for
a surf and I actually didn't go into the sew
and for a paddle just in the bay because I
just thought, I don't know, I just really scared. I've
never been spooked by it before, and you know, and
that's the stuff that breaks your heart, you know, you think,

(01:51):
oh god, you know, and like, I do it too
many risky things in my life as it is, and
I thought, well.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
You know, but the idea too about sharknits. And this
has been in the news and mens has said, because
they're doing but removing them, you said, well, let's stop, and.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
MINSI once again is showing great leadership.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
And saying, you know what, keep them in place.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
This has spooked a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
There was a shark net there though, wasn't there.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, yeah, So there's a giant shark net at Long Reef.
So it's it's one hundred and fifty meters long, and
it's about six meters in depth, and then they sink
that down to like a ten to twelve meters of water,
so we don't within five of the shop do We
don't know. And then there's drum lines which pretty much
kill the shark. So there's and I've heard stories from

(02:33):
the Bondai lifeguards about they've got like they use rio
bar to put the bait on for the and they've
stopped spoken about how the rio bar is bent straight
from the shark that's ripped that off. So we're living
in their world. Having said that, though, in the bad
days of the sixties and seventies, they usued toly just
go and cull sharks.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
They'd kill millions and millions of them.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I don't think peop want to see that.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Well, you know, and that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
And every year, like last year, we had a pub
test removing shark nets, and this is what the reaction
was back then.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I don't think sharkness pass the pub test.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Look, they take other creatures out.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
I was a coodie and a turtle got stuck in it.
You know, the sharks can go under the sharks and
go over.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Look, you've got to take your chances.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
You're going in the water.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
There's millions of people in the water every day.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
So I don't think they pass a pub test.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Not get rid of them. I reckon they're good if
they're to say people's wife.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
I think people care more about people's like family, rather
than a couple of sharks dying here and there. I
think we should be educating the public on where to
be when we swim, rather than trying.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
To slow down sharks in their natural habitat.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Things like don't swim at dawn and dusk, ride out
the back and don't swim after heavy rain because it's
incredibly murky at that time. So it's like prime hunting conditions,
And I feel like we should be educating people rather
than trying to kill sharks. It's a primal fear for
so and rightly so. Coming up next, we're going to
speak to someone who actually has been attacked by a shark,

(03:58):
but he has thoughts on maybe other ways that we
can deter sharks and where the sharknits are going to
work