What book or newspaper are you reading? What's the story? (49)

Hi Abagail and Wash. I agree with that. Nature MUST be respected. That's obvious. Let's the White Sharks live in their own area. That's also obvious. Kind regards.

Hi Wash. Here is a very recent video of stupid young guys in Dumbéa, South New Caledonia, exciting a White Shark fom their small boat...

Article in French and Video:

Original Video (30 September 2012) :

Hi Abagail. Yes, there are other opportunities of interest. Please have a look at this article about websuits:



"...A new wetsuit is being developed to deter sharks
Posted 3 October 2012, 18:39 AEST

A number of wetsuits are being developed by researchers which they hope will make surfers unattractive to sharks.

A research team from the University of Western Australia and University of Queensland has found that sharks are highly visual animals but are probably colour blind.

It has found the animals see colours in shades of grey.

UWA assistant professor Nathan Hart says this information could prove useful.

"Sharks are highly visual animals but the world they see lacks colour and will appear as shades of grey like we see when we watch a black and white movie," he said.

"It may be possible to use this knowledge to change the way a shark reacts to certain objects.

"It may also lead to better design of equipment such as wetsuits and surfboards that reduce the risk of shark attack."

The need is urgent after five fatal shark attacks in WA in less than a year.

UWA's Professor Shaun Collin says they plan to create a wetsuit, using particular patterns, that would make the wearer look unappealing to sharks.

"It makes the wearer appear obnoxious, poisonous or unattractive to the shark, somewhat like a sea snake," said.

"Some species do not typically target these types of patterns on other animals."

The team is also investigating another method to prevent attacks from White Pointers, the breed believed to be responsible for the majority of attacks off the West Australian coast.

Professor Collin says they're working on a wetsuit that would make the wearer look less like a seal, the species' favourite food.

"White pointers generally attack from below so with a lighter background some of their food sources, such as seals, cast a very distinct and high contrast silhouette," he said.
Personal protection

The owner of Dunsborough's Yahoo Surfboard Company, Mark Hills, says there would definitely be a demand for the prototype suit.

The 46-year-old is a surfer himself and has been for 38 years.

"Every surfer has a wetsuit so if it's a situation that it's striped or coloured in such a fashion that it's a preventative against sharks, then I can guarantee you every surfer will be wanting to buy one," he said.

Mr Hills says he's heard of a number of products that have either been trialled or retailed to protect beach goers.

"A Hawaiian-based company that is tied up in dive and surf made a dive suit that stops a shark being able to hear your heartbeat so immediately you become invisible.

"35 per cent of a shark's head is dedicated to being able to hear your heart."

He says there have also been stories of surfers drawing sets of eyes on their boards in an attempt to scare off a potential predator.

"A shark can understand the distance between a gap and an eye and so the bigger the game, the bigger the fish apparently," he said.

And, a range of electronic devices have been retailed in Australia, including a small device that can be attached to a surfboard leash and sends out an electric pulse.

Its maker claims that pulse short-circuits the gel in a shark's nose and deters those within a six metre range.

Mr Hills says despite the growing market for shark deterrents, there's still an element of luck about being attacked.

"I still haven't seen a shark in the water but the one that will get you is the one you can't see," he said..."

Here is the impressive thought of Paul Watson about the new WA Sharks policy at:



"...Captain Paul Watson: Fear and Loathing of Sharks in Western Australia

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson,
Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

I was a surfer in the sixties and seventies and I don’t recall a single moment that I ever felt afraid of sharks — the beautiful and unique creatures that Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett is now condemning. I don’t think Barnett was ever a surfer.

Real surfers not only love the ocean, they also understand it. They understand the complex inter-relationships between species, and if they love and understand the ocean they also love and understand sharks.

No, I simply cannot see Barnett astride a surfboard.

He was most likely one of those poor timid souls who sat on the beach, traumatized by having seen the Spielberg travesty called Jaws.

This week, this same premier of Western Australia issued a shark-hating Fatah, calling for their total annihilation.

This was simply an opportunistic knee-jerk reaction to media histrionics over the deaths of five surfers this year.

Yes it is a tragedy that these five surfers died, and it is sadly true that shark attacks have increased, although relatively by very little, but instead of responding with a hysterical nonsensical pogrom on sharks, maybe the Premier should have taken a serious look at why there has been a slight increase in shark attacks and taken measures to solve the problem without causing blanket damage to bio-diversity in our oceans.

Barnett holds a degree in economics and majored in statistics so he should certainly understand that statistically shark attacks and fatalities are not that frequent and make these animals less dangerous to the public than ostriches, dogs, chimpanzees, elephants, mosquitoes, bees, ants, wasps, deer, horses, cows, and jellyfish.

Statistically the chances of dying in an automobile accident are astronomically greater than being killed by a shark, and there is a far greater possibility of being struck by lightning while playing golf than of being attacked by a shark at the beach.

When it comes to dangerous sports, surfing has far fewer risk factors than golfing, mountain climbing, hiking, hang-gliding, horseback riding, skiing, swimming, scuba diving, boxing or skate-boarding.

Statistically, sharks are simply not a serious factor affecting human mortality compared to almost every other human activity including the fact that on average twenty Australians die each year falling out of bed and another five died while getting into their bathtubs.

On the other hand, we humans slaughter some 70 million sharks annually primarily to supply a few affluent Chinese with a bowl of tasteless soup.

The truth is that hatred of sharks is a manufactured hysteria thanks primarily, although I’m sure without malice, to Steven Spielberg, who resurrected a long-extinct Megalodon shark as a vicious killing machine in Jaws. The notion of such a shark living today is as fictitious as being attacked in modern times by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Targeting Great White sharks means targeting an endangered species and is no different than calling for the extermination of tigers, rhinos, and whales. This is the same kind of shallow-thinking, ecologically ignorant mentality that was responsible for the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger..."