Jonathan Kieran

There have been a couple of shocking Great White Shark attacks off Australian and New Zealand shores in the last few days—one devastatingly fatal and the other resulting in a lucky escape. The first attack found a 55 year-old man named Ted Gendle in the company of about twelve other surfers catching waves near Streaky Bay in Southern Australia. The blokes catching waves report that a large (probably male) Great White of 14-ft quickly appeared from the depths, tore into Gendle, dragged him underwater, and took a chunk out of his surfboard in the process.

Gendle was never seen again, despite concerted efforts by intrepid search & rescue teams via ocean and air. What can be said? This is a tragic, horrifying way to meet one’s ultimate fate. Let us hope his terror and agony were brief.

In the second, slightly more unusual, incident, a paua diver in New Zealand seas barely escaped the predation of a juvenile great white that had managed to grab his feet and tear his diving suit from midsection all the way down his legs. This fellow had the dexterity to somehow free himself from the sharks likely inexperienced jaws and find shelter atop a rocky outcropping nearby.

He was astonishingly lucky. Awkward, learning-to-handle-large prey or not, any one of the juvenile shark’s teeth could have severed an artery in the melee. Au revoir.

What does all this mean? Nothing different than what it has always meant. If you’re in the water with a large, determined, and hungry shark, you’re participating in a lottery, of sorts, one where there’s a good chance of winning a gruesome payout.

Conservation beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s has helped restore the numbers of all kinds of sharks that had been overfished (or unintentionally trapped in nets meant for commercially desirable species) to the point of endangered status or near-extinction for well over a century.

The numbers of Great White sharks have been restored markedly. There are more of them, almost everywhere, and although large numbers of humans have been engaging in a satisfying recreational activity like surfing for about 60 years in the Grand Theater of Time, Great White Sharks have been eating mammals in the water for millions of years. That is not going to change. If anything, the numbers of human fatalities will increase accordingly.

Surfing is a great sport and a satisfying lifestyle for countless devotees—believe me, I was one of them. Dedicated participants know well the various risks and have always known them, to a certain extent. A lot of things can go wrong in the ocean for humans, not just in terms of sharks. The sea is simply not our natural habitat. We’re slow and awkward swimmers, particularly when enveloped in the vastness of the briny and its mischievous currents. And we are edible for something that weighs over a ton and boasts row upon row of razor-sharp serrated teeth.

It’s nothing personal.

Until humans discover a way to repel sharks—even very large ones—without harming these predators so crucial to our ecosystems, swimmers, divers, and surfers are going to have to resign themselves to a kind of “Risk it, Biscuit” approach. Good luck ocean adventurers and stay safe out there. The natural patterns of life are not going to change one bit for the sake of our recreational pleasures … unless we choose to utterly destroy the balance of that world.

And if that ever becomes the case again, we’ll more than deserve whatever happens to us.

———————

[Jonathan is busy writing and illustrating and finishing a whole slew of projects in preparation for upcoming major releases. Don’t expect a helluva lot of bloggin’ to get done unless something really strikes his fancy. Be patient. Marvelous things are on the way.]

#GreatWhiteSharks #SharkAttacks #Surfing #Gendle #TheGrandSchemeOfThings #AuthorJonathanKieran #JonathanKieran #WriterJonathanKieran #CaliforniaLife #OnTheEdge #Wistwood #JonathanKieranTheAuthor #JonathanKieranMusic #JonathanKieranNewAlbum #JonathanKieranArtist #Jericho #JonathanKieranJericho #JerichoAlbum #WritersOfInstagram