Deutsche Presse-Agentur
December 21, 2004, Tuesday  

Killer shark divides Australians
By Sid Astbury

A grisly death on a popular Adelaide beach has exposed Australia's love-hate relationship with 
the sharks that circle the continent and once in a while pick off swimmers. While some bay for 
the blood of the five-metre great white shark that tore apart Nick Peterson earlier this week, 
family and friends of the 18-year-old surfer caution against what they say amounts to little 
more than a revenge attack. "We acknowledge that the sea is, in fact, the sharks' domain," 
said Nick's father. "They are to be admired, appreciated and respected - Nick knew that." 
Since 1965, there have been 15 fatal shark attacks in the waters off the Adelaide-based state 
of South Australia. 

Philip Peterson is far from being the only bereaved person to urge Australians to abide by the
law they enacted that placed the great white shark on the list of protected species. A year
ago, 29-year-old surfer Brad Smith was taken by a great white while surfing on a Perth beach.
His brother, Stephen, deplored the decision of the West Australian state government to try to
hunt down the killer shark. "I don't believe the shark should be killed just for the sake of
what happened," Smith said. "I don't think he can be revenged by killing the shark." 

In the last 40 years, there have been 32 shark attacks in West Australia, 12 of them fatal.
When it comes to shark attacks, politicians don't listen to the emotional pleas of the
bereaved or even the cool reasoning of marine biologists. Top South Australian state
government official Kevin Foley pledged, "This government will not allow a rogue shark near
people to be a menace to human life." Never mind that the notion of a "rogue" shark makes as
much sense as a "rogue" mosquito. Sharks prey on creatures they detect splashing around in the
water that they believe to be easy to get or close to death. It could be a seal or a surfer
"surfie" - the predators don't know until they bite. Generally, if it's a human, they let go.
Occasionally they don't. As the experts always point out, Australians are much more likely to
be killed driving to the beach than swimming there. More have fallen victim to bee stings and
lightning strikes than to sharks. In the 200 years that public records have been kept, the
average death toll attributed to sharks is one person a year.

Politicians who usually warn against public hysteria over real or perceived perils like AIDS
or radiation from mobile phones are unembarrassed at their own paranoia when it comes to
sharks. Foley, who has ordered sons Ryan and Ben to stay away from the beach, has nevertheless
urged his fellow Adelaide residents to overcome their fears and take a dip in the ocean. It
was the same this time last year with West Australian state government Fisheries Minister Kim
Chance. He also raised the alarm about a rogue shark that could get it into its head that
biting people was itself nourishing and should become a habit. Chance said that the shark that
got Brad Smith could return to the same spot for another surfer. "Why a particular shark might
return to an area is an ingrained hunting instinct, I imagine," he mused.

Some ordinary citizens find the pop-psychology of politicians very annoying. "Sharks are
predators that kill to survive,"  Sydney resident Murray Stewart wrote to his local paper.
"They are not evil. They have no emotional response to what they do. They do not develop a
taste for people. They do not become rogue. They are not capable of making ethical decisions
about whether it is right or wrong to kill people or seals."

The muddled thinking that has politicians in knots over killing sharks deemed to be killers
also exasperates Andrew Fox, whose father Rodney is a world-famous authority on sharks and
curator of Adelaide's Rodney Fox Shark Museum. Rodney Fox got himself into the Guinness Book
of World Records by surviving a mauling by a great white that took 462 stitches to repair.
"They don't tend to become 'rogue' sharks, because there has never been a case where a shark
has taken a liking to eating people," Andrew Fox said. "They normally don't bite humans. They
bite them, but don't consume them. We don't have the energy content of dolphins, whales and
snappers. But they kill people with the test bite."

Yet the spectre of the rogue shark persists. This Christmas holiday, Foley promised, aerial
patrols will be out looking for sharks off Adelaide's coastline. What will happen to sharks
that are spotted hasn't been decided. But it's not reason that will prevail. "I'm no expert on
great white sharks," Foley said. "I just happen to have the view that, whatever particular
species, if it's immediately threatening human life, it should be destroyed."