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08/06/2007: "HOW THEY GOT GREY NURSE FIGURES WRONG"
The largest recent school of grey nurse I'm aware of is about 100 sharks we swam with off Big Seal Rock, at Seal Rocks NSW.
Little Seal Rock nearby is where many dozen gather which we've filmed on 16mm. A calm sea is needed to anchor nearby. The numbers returning to these locations increased dramatically in 1988 and have remained since then.
An out-date before it was made was a major US network documentary filmed at Seal Rocks hosted by JAWS author and diver (the late) Peter Benchley of USA. The project used information from an old magazine re grey nurse sharks vanishing. Unknown to people overseas, the species had just made a sudden return and in in greater numbers than ever seen by modern divers.
It was stale information that justified the expensive film being produced. Although the important fact that the sharks were no longer endangered was apparent the production went ahead with the planned theme. So much for trusting what we see on TV as fact.
I was visiting Seal Rocks two days before filming began and asked Benchley (who I'd worked with before and regarded as a friend) why they were making a film about vanishing sharks when there were more than one hundred at Big Seal.
He answered with words to the effect the project was in advanced stages - too late to be changed, that he might return and do a story about the return of the grey nurse. He never did but I’m confident he would have liked to have done so.
A major television film has re-runs for many years all over the world and if it perpetuates an untruth of major proportions, so what?
There's no penalty forcing stations who broadcast rubbish to pay a fine, or even admit to the mistake.
In the following months and years the word spread about the new shark schools at Seal Rocks and almost every local documentary nature and nature shows sent cameramen to do a story. Even outback bushman Malcolm Douglas went diving at Big Seal. Fantastic international publicity and a good revenue source.
PADI introduced a "shark diver" certificate and profitable grey nurse shark diving was in full swing. Hundreds of divers might enter the water every weekend. The sharks were easily spooked at first and would scatter. Later they settled down and accepted the strobe lights and being surrounded to some extent.
Local fishermen were not impressed with the extra people and boats visiting the sleepy village. One told me of a deepwater shark location he was keeping secret from scuba divers. Any depth beyond 25 meters is not time-practical for learner divers who mostly comprise any scuba tour group.
The often quoted population estimate of 500 grey nurse sharks left in NSW is a silly guess at best and in the interest of dive shops to gain exclusive access to shallow water grey nurse sites. Guess who gives the fisheries department these estimate figures?
The use of cattle ear tags attached to dorsal fins of grey nurse was an ill concived plan. The tags would be prone to snagging on fisherman's lines resulting in dorsal fins being cut off in order to free the shark. The missing dorsal fin might later be seen, photographed and attributed to shark finning for profit. (i.e. shark fin soup).
Marine biologist, Adam Smith PhD used the following analogy (of the 500 sharks left estimate) which disregarded all deepwater and unknown to scuba dive shop shark locations:
"A city population estimate where all people in just nightclubs, on a single given night, were counted as being the true population of the entire city".
The problem today seems too many sharks having contact with too many fisherman's lines and hooks. The deliberate low estimate seems an excuse to keep fisherman away and give sole access to scuba people.
As a diver I should agree with this, I won't on the basis the lazy justification to date is seriously flawed and has been grossly distorted by lies repeated for years until they seem like a truth, at least to those who don't know any better.JH
