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07/08/2005: "BYRON BAY and SHARKS"

This picture was taken the day before a diver was eaten by a big shark at this location.

For three previous days I'd guessed conditions were ideal for sharks - my surfer friends were skeptical. The signs noted were:

1. Whales migrating along and close to the coast 2. a dolphin school in the bay 3. big schools of mullet being netted at the point 4. seagulls diving and feeding on small bait fish in the bay 5. Windless calm sea - allowing sounds to travel easier and further.

The migrating whales would be the key warning sign - especially as Cape Byron is the most easterly extremity of the coast.

We believe big white pointer (great white) sharks take advantage of whales giving birth.

These sharks follow the whales just as predator animals follow the great herds in Africa.

Weak whales are potential food. So are any other things in the path of these big sharks.

The diver 'eaten' was noted to be using a regulator which squarks when air pressure in the tank is critically low - as when decompressing. This is what was happening when the accident occured.

It didn't keep divers out of the water for very long. About two days. I wasn't one of the team that was first to get wet again - not when the weather had changed - vis dropped to about three meters, a strong SW wind blew in - and nobody knew if there were any other big sharks around or not!

Note: I was visiting Byron Bay several years earlier when another person, a surfer, with the same surname (Ford) was killed by a shark-bite. What are the odds of that happening?





Footnote2: Paul Turner (a visitor to this site) emailed of an encounter he had while snorkeling at the wreck near The Beach Hotel. He's spotted an injured turtle - something had biten away part of the shell, and later headed for shore. His note:

On return to First Sun caravan park an observer with binos (a guy that took a daily surf ski paddle to the rocks and back) said he had seen something really large alround me, behind, on either side and that it would move fast then appear to come stop with its head out of the water then disappear to return again.

I told him I had tried to swim in a purposeful, strong way after I realised a large shark was near me.