"Stay happy and you'll be perfectly fine" - Jack Norris

A new meaning for nipper?

In the email…
A small shark nipped a surfer on the leg at Mona Vale this morning. Expect a few more “nippings”. White Pointer sharks have been protected since the late 1990’s, therefore there’s going to be a lot more in the water.

The sharks that attacked surfers last year were identified as small White Pointers and I’ll put money on it that this morning’s attack was the same species.

Thankfully, BIG White Pointers aren’t doing the damage. This is because Whites are what are called “developmental habitat dwellers”. That is, a female shark gives birth about every 18 months to a small number of pups. About a metre in length at birth, they’re vulnerable to attack out in the open, deep water miles offshore, so they swim into shallower water to feed on bait fish, tailor, salmon etc. This is obviously around headlands and beaches.

Therefore, before they “develop” into bigger sharks and can target bigger mammals and fish further offshore, their “habitat” is going to be where we play in the ocean. If all those mature female White Pointers have been producing a litter every 18 months since the White Pointer’s protection in the late 1990’s, we will be seeing a lot more little sharks biting people in the surf.

We’re lucky we don’t have seal colonies close to surf beaches like in South Africa, otherwise the BIG White Pointers would be a problem.

As a surfer who grew up in the South Island of New Zealand, I had a couple of moments with White Pointers. This instigated a healthy respect. I’m now on the committee for a recreational fishing lobby group and have access to some really interesting State and Federal Govt. fisheries data on this species.

Just take consolation that these smaller sharks aren’t targeting humans. They see our flailing extremities such as arms and legs are fair game, something smaller than them. I’ve been told by a fisheries scientist that the reason why White Pointer sharks don’t “usually” carry on with it and eat us up is because of how we taste. His comparison was “sink your teeth into an unripe lemon and you’ll get the drift”. Most probably why the shark repellent kits issued to airmen in World War II contained acetic acid (bitter lemon taste).
-Warwick Gibson