Mayor calls for sharks involved in fatal encounters to be killed

After six shark encounters in eight months a South Australian Mayor is calling for a cull on the sharks responsible for those that ended up as fatalities.

Sounding not unlike Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) from JAWS (1975), Elliston Mayor Andrew McLeod said the rate of shark attacks was alarming and had to be addressed by the state government, after six of the 1,000 residents had shark encounters, three of which were fatal.

The Mayor, who was bumped off a surfboard in the same waters in 2014, said: “Trying to terminate the shark responsible for the attack would not risk the survival of the species as a whole.”

The news, reported by ABC News, has echoes of scenes from JAWS where the residents of Amity Island (and beyond) attempt to catch a great white shark after the death of Alex Kintner. Eventually the Mayor hires Quint (Robert Shaw) and his boat, the Orca, to help catch and kill the shark along with Chief of Police Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and Oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss).

Back in November, the District Council of Elliston even passed a motion in calling for the Department for Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) to terminate a shark if it had killed a human.

McLeod, who once worked as a diver in the tuna industry, said it was a serious concern for the town's residents — many who live there to surf or dive. Just like Mayor Vaughn and Amity Island there was also the cloud of killer sharks – to quote the newscaster from JAWS played by the book’s author Peter Benchley – that was having a demonstrable impact on tourism in the town and on summer dollars.

"I think that things are becoming increasingly risky for water users,,,it's definitely playing on everyone's minds…There's definitely been a drop in the amount of tourists that have been coming here to surf and that does have an economic impact on the local businesses here.”

Such proposed actions may grab headlines, but that certainly doesn’t mean that any sharks involved in fatal encounters will be caught, it will only lead to the deaths of scores of sharks – across all species not just great whites – that is completely unnecessary and will inevitably lead to a lasting impact on the local ecosystem.

That doesn’t mean that extra safety precautions can’t be taken, whether it is drone patrols or shark tagging, with both acting as early warning systems. None can eradicate the chance of future shark encounters – fatal or otherwise – but then neither does the needless death of numerous sharks in the area.

As ever, we are in their domain, so must proceed with caution in such waters where great whites are prevalent. And adding surfers into the mix is going to mean it is only going to be a question of time when that next happens.

Words by Dean Newman

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