Melissa Clarke: The shark attack at one of Sydney’s most popular beaches on the weekend has reignited fear about the apex predators, as well as debate about how to manage them. A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after being attacked while swimming between the flags at Coogee Beach on Saturday. Katherine Gregory reports. And a warning this story contained some graphic detail that might be distressing to some listeners.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : Perfect winter swimming conditions, clear, crisp water in broad daylight. Until Ben Heenan, the president of the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, witnessed a scene of horror.<\/p>\n
Ben Heenan: We heard a yell and then a bit more yelling from a group of three in the ocean and saw a grey figure next to them and then started to see red and as soon as I saw red, some extra slashing and more intense yelling, I sprinted up to the lifeguards to make sure they were aware and could sound the shark alarm and get the gear we needed and then I grabbed a board and headed out there to help.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : He sprung into action, helping to bring the 35-year-old woman to shore.<\/p>\n
Ben Heenan: She had pretty extensive injuries to her right leg and her left arm. She’d lost a lot of blood and was kind of in and out of consciousness.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : Coogee local Kylie Barnes saw the immediate aftermath of the shark attack.<\/p>\n
Kylie Barnes: It was so heartwarming to see everyone just flock and apply first aid and then they were holding up towels for her dignity.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : Kylie Barnes also questioned some online commentary about the increasing risk of shark attacks and calls for shark culling.<\/p>\n
Kylie Barnes: Every day we take calculated risks. When we drive in our car, we take a risk. I think we all need to remember that we share this planet with animals and ourselves and I don’t think culling is the answer but something does need to be done.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : The NSW Environment Minister Tara Moriarty has not ruled out shark culling as an option to keep people safe. Shark monitoring drones are banned at Coogee Beach because of fears they’ll interfere with commercial airline traffic. But the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has temporarily lifted that ban and the State Government is exploring extending it. It’s also considering installing shark nets all year round which are normally only reserved for summer. But local ocean swimmer Adriana isn’t sure it’ll help.<\/p>\n
Adrianna: But I believe they’re always there and no nets is going to make a difference. I think it’s just maybe having some more drones to have a look from above. It’s their territory, we can’t cull them to make us safe.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : Marine experts say there’s been an increase in unprovoked shark bites and fatalities in recent years. Dr Daryl McPhee, an Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Bond University insists shark culling wouldn’t make a huge difference and it’s not a viable option anyway.<\/p>\n
Dr Daryl McPhee: In terms of shark nets, the Government is damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If they extend the period of nets then humpback whales are caught.<\/p>\n
Katherine Gregory : Instead, he says drone monitoring combined with education is key.<\/p>\n
Dr Daryl McPhee: What will be helpful I think for the public was around the Sydney beaches, some clearer information where drone patrols are or are not active and at what times they are active. That’s certainly the feedback I’m getting from the community is that we wouldn’t swim at Coogee if we’d known that there was no drone patrol.<\/p>\n
Melissa Clarke: Dr Daryl McPhee from Bond University, ending that report by Katherine Gregory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Clarke: The shark attack at one of Sydney’s most popular beaches on the weekend has reignited fear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21505,1796,13876,4968,27743,28521,247,29015],"class_list":["post-31472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-coogee","tag-drones","tag-podcast","tag-shark-attack","tag-shark-culling","tag-shark-nets","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-beaches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}