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26/07/2005: "WHITE POINTER SHARK FILE"
White Pointer sharks are also called Great White sharks. They are not white - more a dirty grey colour.
The white pointer shark was never commonly caught by fishermen, but JAWS movie hysteria saw all sharks targeted for their teeth and jaws as trophies.
Recently CSIRO scientists have attached satellite enabled tracking tags to white pointers to learn migration movements - thought by many to coincide with southern whale migrations north for breeding.
Skindivers who encountered white pointers were once being bitten all too frequently, now it seems to be surfboard riders who are the potential candidates, especially in southern Australian waters.
Diver Henri Bource made a shark film after he lost half his leg to a large white pointer while snorkel swimming with sea lions (not a brilliant idea)!
Rod Fox was spearfishing when he was seriously 'mouthed' by a white pointer which, luckily did not bite him in halves. The above picture was taken just two days after surgeons removed the 260 odd stiches from his chest in late 1963. Rod went on to appear in many shark documentaries - his first "Revenge of a Shark Victim".
The diver with a white pointer on the beach is a 21 year-old John Harding Jr. After this encounter he began writing about the significant behavioural differences between various shark species. -
A popular story on white pointer sharks in the weekly Everybodys magazine in 1967 became the first published anywhere to state these differences from a divers encounters.
This was the beginning of recognition for the grey nurse shark as being no longer a lethal species. Fathom magazine later popularised this view in 1971 - that material has been perpetuated and expanded since.
When the above pictures were taken - "all sharks were killers" - we know otherwise today of course.
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Exhibiting a White Shark (Monterey Aquarium, California information)
In September 2004, the aquarium became the first in the world to place a white shark on long-term exhibit. The shark was tagged and successfully released back to the wild in March 2005.
The data tag mapped the shark's movements for a month—travels that took the shark more than 100 miles (161 km) offshore and to depths greater than 800 feet (244 m) below the surface.
We received the young white shark in August 2004 after she was caught inadvertently in a commercial fishing net. She was tagged and held in an ocean pen until September 14.
Data from the electronic tag recovered from the young white shark released back to the wild in March 2005 after being on exhibit for almost six months showed that she traveled more than 100 miles offshore.
The shark remained in good health and was transported to Monterey and placed in the Outer Bay exhibit.
During her 198 days in the aquarium's million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit, she grew from a length of 5 feet and a weight of 62 pounds to a length at release of 6-feet-4˝ inches and a weight of 162 pounds.
Having a white shark on exhibit allowed us to gather new data on the biology and behavior of young white sharks—data that will help in their management and conservation.
We hope to bring another white shark to Monterey for exhibit in the summer of 2005.
Newcastle and Hunter Heli Services chief pilot Steve Bazic said that in 20 years of flying over the area he had never seen so many great whites.
He said: "Last time I did a count there were 18 whites ranging from juveniles to some that were three to five metres and as big as Volkswagens."
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Reeling in great white sharks from our surf beaches
By Paul Scott and Chad Watson
October 23, 2005
The Sun-Herald (Sydney Australia)
Two thrill-seeking anglers have caught more than a dozen great white sharks (6 foot to 9 feet in length) by using surfboards to drop baited hooks just beyond the breakers.
The great whites (white pointer sharks) have taken the bait - usually half an Australian salmon - only 50 metres from the water's edge along Stockton Bight, north of Newcastle.
Kris Macklin and Glen Connell, of Boat Harbour at Port Stephens, paddle out on their surfboards with the salmon and line tucked beneath their chests.
They throw the bait overboard then paddle quickly back to shore and wait for a strike in the middle of the aptly named Bight, a 30-kilometre stretch with popular surfing and bathing spots at either end (Stockton Beach to the south and Birubi in the north).
