SHE REASONS

WITH ACCOMPANYING PHOTOS

PART I

FEAR & FACTS

This year, like so many people, I‘ve had sharks on my mind.

Amongst the bushfires, floods and pandemic lockdowns, fatal shark attacks have loomed with seeming regularity in the news. By early August, five people had died as a result of unprovoked shark bites, with six others surviving their encounters. Three of the five fatalities were in the southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales regions where I live and surf and swim. My home stretch had suddenly become one of the most high profile areas for shark encounters and fatalities in the world. Again.

So, sharks have been on my mind.

The public fear and flurry of media attention that accompanied each encounter and attack led to the installation of nets and smart drumlines in Ballina and Lennox Head. Shark net and drum line programmes were first installed in Sydney from 1937, and on the Gold Coast and Cairns from 1962. The lack of attacks in those areas has led to people correlating the nets and drumlines with human safety. But not