Shark Cull | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
  • IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.

Shark Cull

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
11,546
Melbourne
WesternTiger said:
http://theconversation.com/whats-the-real-risk-of-being-bitten-by-a-shark-in-western-australia-23132

A welcome, sober-minded perspective. A similar recent study conducted by Professor Peter Sprivulis for the Australasian Medical Journal found swimming south of Perth in spring to be ten times more dangerous than riding a pushbike.

"'As someone who enjoys water activities in the south west, on a personal level it's a disappointing and concerning finding."

Comparing the "worst case scenario" figure from WesternTiger's link, i.e. 1 in 15,000 for a diver in certain conditions, with horse racing, and ignoring for the minute the number of uncounted rides in track gallops and trials:

Last decade: 7 deaths from ~1,900,000 official runners = ~1/270,000 chance of a jockey being killed in a horse race in Australia.

I'm certain it would take much less than an 18-fold increase in the risk to jockeys to bring about major safety reforms.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
14,793
LeeToRainesToRoach said:
A welcome, sober-minded perspective. A similar recent study conducted by Professor Peter Sprivulis for the Australasian Medical Journal found swimming south of Perth in spring to be ten times more dangerous than riding a pushbike.

And yet in 2013, 50 cyclists were killed on Australian roads while 14 people were fatally attacked by sharks world-wide.
 

Baloo

Delisted Free Agent
Nov 8, 2005
44,115
18,926
I was quizzed on Friday night over my refusal to eat Shark's Fin soup. It was pointed out that as an Australian, I was being a tad hypocritical now that WA are culling sharks.

The best I could do was explain that WA, despite the name, really isn't part of Australia. They seemed to buy that eventually.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
14,793
LeeToRainesToRoach said:
This one hasn't received much coverage here.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/shark-attack-deaths-can-cut-3147732

Anyone up for a test?

I'll be wearing my regular swimming outfit thanks

sharkini00.jpg
 

Streak

Tiger Legend
Aug 31, 2007
37,211
6,216
Western Australia
LeeToRainesToRoach said:
This one hasn't received much coverage here.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/shark-attack-deaths-can-cut-3147732

Anyone up for a test?

I have heard that black and white stripes actually attract sharks.
 

Brodders17

Tiger Legend
Mar 21, 2008
17,666
11,708
LeeToRainesToRoach said:
This one hasn't received much coverage here.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/shark-attack-deaths-can-cut-3147732

Anyone up for a test?

i have a wetsuit with stripes and have never been attacked by a shark........
 

Baloo

Delisted Free Agent
Nov 8, 2005
44,115
18,926
I have a t-shirt with a picture of a shark and have never been culled.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
14,793
George Monbiot nails it

There are, I think, two factors at work. The first is the desire to eliminate all risk from our lives, to move through a world that is safe, predictable and tame, with "no alarms and no surprises".

The second emerges paradoxically from the consequences of that desire. Having achieved, or almost achieved, the object of the great civilisational quest – To Know What Comes Next – we have been rewarded with a new set of unmet needs. Without natural hazards, without the thrills and spills we evolved to withstand, our lives sometimes feel exceedingly dull. We have gained much from the predictability we've manufactured, and lost something too.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2014/feb/19/western-australia-shark-cull-irrational-fear?CMP=ema_632


TL : DR

so basically he's saying that the knee jerk response of policy makers is to try to legislate safety. The less interesting but obvious part of the article is the role of the media and film-makers in demonising sharks.

Personally I don't want to live in a world without risk - as if such a thing were ever possible anyway. We now live in a society where increasingly our freedoms are curtailed because of "terrorism" and it's the security-crats and the safety-crats who are trying to convince us that in order to be safe, we must live in cotton wool.
 

WesternTiger

Tiger Legend
Nov 7, 2004
14,674
3,534
Declared a success hey.

http://theconversation.com/five-take-home-messages-from-was-official-shark-cull-numbers-26381