yes
no
I`d love to come across one when out in my boat sometime, I am sure I would be extremely fearful but I have always loved sharks....true dinosaurs!.
I`ve seen heaps mainly from shore, never a great white though or a Tiger.
It is one of my great dreams to video a Great White from my boat, also killer whales...from a distance of course.
G'day
Haven't seen a white, although would love too from a cage. That's one of my dreams.
Have seen killer whales from the charter boat I used to work on, amazing sight when they were feeding, smashing up the baitfish on the surface, and happened just east of hutchies, truly amazing.
Dave
Juvenile white pointers are believed to be relatively common in an area just north of newcastle known as the stockton bight. This has only recently come to light, helped no doubt by the media coverage given to a couple of local guys who were catching them regularly from the beach using a game chair mounted to the front of their 4wd.
The young sharks are believed to be attracted to the area by the hoards of salmon which seem to be around most of the year. Only last week a guy I work with was out surfing and had a 7 to 8 foot shark swim under him, which he described as almost as wide as it was in length and pectoral fins like wings (huge). Sounded like a white to me.
On a personal note I worked on a tuna poling boat out of port lincoln S.A. back in the late 70s (showing my age) and sightings of large white pointers were fairly common, and let me tell you that even when standing in a big boat, the sight of one of those things eyeballing you can make you turn white.
Also had a mate survive an attack from a middling size white while surfing a place known as cactus beach in S.A. He still has all his arms and legs and still surfs there.
Interesting stuff hey guys,
,in the 3years ive owned my commerical fishing boat ive seen 3 this year one last year and none in the first yeah of owning it, all whites were seen in the same area (between cockhat>broken head to kingscliff a arera of water 30nm between 50m and 100m off water although mainly around just north of the cape byron, i see a lot of hammer head sharks and a few tigers. funny anouth the hammer head shark so far is the only shark i have seen reallymade me nervous ive seen then tharshing for no reason near the boat ,rubbing aganst the boat and one aroud april chewed one of the legs of my 90hp honda (did no damage). from what i was seen they love anything floating in open water as alot of my sightings have been over a flat sandy bottom no fish showing on the sounder,and a had no burly in the water , i was spanner crabbing so all bait is flat on the bottom with just a few pillies. i surf the pass and even though last week somebody was attacked by a white, im not scared of sharks but i wouldnt like to be floating 10miles to sea with a chicken tyed to my leg !! haha
Cheers guys Craig
You know it funny I copped a mouthful of abuse from a greeny not too lon ago about how fisherman are just cruel nasty people and that we all should have a fish hook stuck ino us and be dragged along and this and that, I wish that deadhead would give a moment to read posts like these ones to see that fisho's actually do have a great deal of respect for the animals we chase and especially the ones like GW's that could turn a good bad real quick. Cheers to you all guys you have made me feel good about being a fisherman again.
Originally Posted by VoodooChile78
Probably like the rest of the fish population...there just ain't as many around as there used to be. Idiots like Vic Hislop and his ilk..."they're all man-eaters" and "the only good shark is a dead shark" so many sharks were slaughtered.
I would love to see one in real life...not while I am swimming or diving mind you!
take a drive to port stevens put your boat in and go for a run down towards stockton along the beach .
You will see all the beautiful animals you want.
ps i won,t mind if u take some home with you we seem to have plenty.
When I lived in Tassie we were always weary of them, there was always a reports of them around bruny island. We used to go chaseing the couta out on the hippolite rock near eagle hawk, and all the locals spoke of a big one out there that hung around for the seals they said 24 feet.
Later in life when working at sea I saw one off coffs, they are just a awsome site much better then the pictures flashed around by vic, he seemed to follow the theroy from jaws to closley?????
Funny how attitudes change with time, and a good thing too........
From tunaticers' anecdote I will have to change my opinion of Hislop, I do not condone useless slaughter of any creatures, certainly not for 'sport'. From memory Vics' captures were purportedly of 'man-eaters' though attitudes were I believe, considerably different back then and sure, the media always loves an opportunity.
To perhaps give some historical perspective, it wasn't that long ago that the annual Fraser Island tailor pilgrimage was seen as a rite of passage, rather than a slaughter fest.
Thankfully todays' fishos are better educated and more responsible.
As for feeling good about being a fisho, just practice what you preach, that will do the trick!
Cheers.
What an odd comment from a fisherman?we kill fish all the time,often inadvertantly.
or nigel, are you really a card carrying PETA member in disguise.
Every day of our lives,unless we are an unwashed vegan feral living in a humpy in the woods,we are responsible either directly or indirectly for many animals deaths.
But as we are at the top of the food chain and our burgeoning wants and needs spell death to many critters then its really hypocritical to personally decide which animals deserve to live (sharks) and which we can overlook and continue to let die horrible deaths( laboratory testing monkeys,dogs etc) depending on what we class as a useless death..
Trouble is humans are often one eyed and we only see what we want to see.
From the little I know of Hislop,he believed he was hunting a man eating and environmentally destructive menace(great white sharks,tigers etc indiscriminately kill and sometimes eat people,dugong,whale,dolphin and plenty of fish and whatever else they can find to chew on.)
Whereas acclaimed filmmakers Ron and Valerie Taylor and there buddies almost wiped out the harmless Grey nurse population purely for the fun of it.(but are now reformed)
Strange old world
Scott
In response Disorderly, the only fish I set out to kill are those I eat, my by-catch kill rate is, by design, exceptionally low.
Personally I do not consider putting food fish on the table 'useless', although I would call catching fish to satisfy ones' ego as 'questionable', but after all we are all only human..........
I must confess to not being a member of the 'animals before humans' society, in fact I'm about as far from that ethos as it is possible to go..
I find your comments on Hislop, the Taylors et al interesting, the macho diver shark killer ethos, albeit with powerheads, was certainly alive and well in the 60's and 70's and prevailed into the 80's, at least.
Cheers.
It is true that a lot of people who have been involved in most industries be it fishing or anything else, become protective of what is left later in thier lives as Ron and Valerie Taylor have done.
However, people who have not yet reached that level of recognition of the demise of the environment they plunder, find it very difficult to accept wisdom of those that have attained the protective state in thier lives.
Seems that no amount of badgering, hostility or reasoning can convince them that thier beliefs are not for the long term good.
For those of you who have reached the protective stance on your particular environment and take measures to minimise your impact there, I applaud you. For people who reach for limelight or notoriety by massacring a target species even under "the save the world" banner by killing off a potential natural threat, I do hope that your awakening comes soon.
I would like to see sharks every single time I go fishing as well as a myriad of other species that were once very prevalent.
The natural world is both a place of freedom and danger, a place of beauty and balance. Why should we disturb it for being natural?
Jack.
Indeed tunaticer, as we live, so we may learn, if we are lucky.........
Cheers and once again, great thread.
Interesting to see the comments when hislop is mentioned. Always is. Firstly, Hislop never was the 'only good shark is a dead shark' bloke think he is. He actually hasn;t hunted shark in over ten years. Although i am on the shark's side (I tag them for a research group), I must also say that vic isn't the crazy monger that people say he is. Yes he did kill a number of the top four sharks, possibly thousands, but it wasn't a mindless vendetta, he actually had/has a theory. He believes that with all the fishing over the past couple of decades (longlining etc), the sharks are becoming more desperate to feed on things such as large mammals, turtles, dugong etc. as their primary supply of fish is disappearing, hence, they too need to be trimmed down in order to keep things in balance. Take it or leave it, that's his main belief. He also argues that a few of the 'goody goody' conservationists (some mentioned in this topic) are in fact training sharks to associate people with food - stuffing wetsuits with fish, putting human shapes on surfboards, filling dive cages with humans and burleying the water, that sort of thing, and claims that these very people have rallied to have the great white protected because of monetary reasons (having sharks around for their docos etc). Once again, take it or leave it. Either way i don't doubt that something is certainly askew with it all, and that maybe some of their practices are questionable. He knows aussie waters from a SHARKING point of view better than anyone in the world I would say (just my opinion), so i don't believe his theories should be thrown to the wind automatically, as seems to often happen these days. I will never be on the side of killing sharks for any reason, but i will say even though i sit on the other side of the fence, and being someone who grew up blindly disliking him, i certainly changed once i ignored what i had heard and really gave thought to what he says. Some of his theories really do make sense, and ring true out in the field. Just my thoughts. either way it really annoys me when i go on internet sites and witness so called scientific experts spouting their knowledge and ridiculing his when the most they've done is handle harmless reefies in the caymans. There is always another side to the story, and the student who seeks TRUTH will be open to both. I see his train of thought and the 'rest' as being similar to cage fighting. First it was stand up only, then the gracies came along and it was submission wins, now it's a healthy mixture of both. Same applies here i reckon, cos there's merit at both ends.
Cuzza
Last edited by cuzzamundi; 25-10-2007 at 07:58 PM.
In 25 years of boat fishing off NSW ( wide offshore) + a shark trip to SA during the 80s .... I've seen 5 only & 3 of those were hooked off dangerous reef in South OZ ! .... One of the others wanted to eat my burley bucket on my 5.35CC off Port Stephens ( scarey at best)
As far as I know ..... you wouldn't call Qld a prolific GWS habitat..... Tigers ... Well thats something else
Ida , Neon ( my boy Charlie ) & myself were coming back 1 outing just after a fair flood, (2.5-3yrs ago )there was a dirty water slick out to about 3 miles or so.
As we were just approaching the dirty water line, Ida pointed, "log in the water", I could see a branch sticking up out of the water, Ok, so I thought I'd putt over really slow & see if any Dollies were under it.
I pulled in fairly close to the butt end of the log, looked pretty big in the water, about 3 ft around. As we drove down the length of it ( more than my 5.25 Vermont ) I was looking for branches sticking out, not the log or what was out of the water.
As we rounded the "branch" sticking up out of the water.............
All hell broke loose on the surface, it wasn't a log but a f@@@@@g great shark, just lolling on the surface, & by the big white flash of it's belly, we called it for a big white shark.
It just happens that a big white was spotted at Julien Rocks not long after, estimated at 22-24 ft, we believe it to be the same fish.
I've seen lots of other sharks, but this was my first White.
Muzz
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