Spearfisher critical after bull shark hit - Queensland, Australia

[Dennisrl84]

I was reading something from another site about a similar situation and an animal expert said more often then not, particularly in high tourist area's the sharks are fed by people and it came expecting food and didn't get any. They (and another article posted on this page) stated that can usually be concluded because often times the bites are in the same area that people are known to carry the food.

 

[Popgun Pete]

The worst seems to over as latest report has Rick stable after the surgery. Shock can still be a factor and recovery will be protracted. All our thoughts and prayers for his recovery after this shocking incident...
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/na...ter-north-qld-shark-bite-20201026-p568ty.html
Queensland shark attack victim awake and in a stable condition in hospital

 

[Biotech Diver]

The worst seems to over as latest report has Rick stable after the surgery. Shock can still be a factor and recovery will be protracted. All our thoughts and prayers for his recovery after this shocking incident...
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/na...ter-north-qld-shark-bite-20201026-p568ty.html
Queensland shark attack victim awake and in a stable condition in hospital

Thanks for posting the news links. Australian news gives better details and accounts of incidents like this than the US media does. US media is purposefully vague.

 

[tarponchik]

You might be in clearer waters there, but also cooler, so I'm not sure its any safer. There was a Qld Parks officer attacked approx 10km from there in April, which would've been an unprovoked attack.

Every man and his dog is spear fishing the northern GBR these days, its new craze, to the point where the selective taking of large fish is a real problem. Every weekend there will be hundreds of spearos along those reefs not in the green zone, this is the first attack in a while so the odds are still pretty low, but its been a big year for shark attacks. This guy owes his life to a few things going his way.

Granted its all perspective, and I've never dived Britomart, but Otter reef is clear and actually very shallow fringes. We didn't go the whole way around it but it was hard to find more than about 8m of water near any coral, the viz was much better than that. A few people might take a bit more notice of their fuel capacity and the tides though, the channel into Dungeness is one to understand clearly if your life is going to depend on it.

Aren't the authorities concerned that spearfishing on such grandiose scale will give some fish species unfair advantage over the other?

 

[chris kippax]

The GBR marine park authority seems to do a pretty decent job of managing the reefs. From the zones you can only spear fish in the yellow & Blue zone. Green is no take and pink is no entry. Little example below

 

[ToneNQ]

Aren't the authorities concerned that spearfishing on such grandiose scale will give some fish species unfair advantage over the other?

They are concerned, most certainly. You'll regularly see fisheries inspectors at the Dungeness boat ramp. You also occasionally see them on the water, I've seen them chase a few boats out of the green zones.

I've dive a lot outside the green zones and the fish life now compared to a decade ago is decimated. That's not indicative of the entire GBR, I can only attest to a few select places easy to reach from the mainland boat ramps, but for me its obvious the damage being done in the easily accessed places. The number of work colleagues that are all now keen spearos is huge, the sport has exploded.

 

[Bob DBF]

Aren't the authorities concerned that spearfishing on such grandiose scale will give some fish species unfair advantage over the other?

I would imagine their version of our Fish and Game department watch the take and monitor the resources and control the length of the season and the bag limits on fish to control the populations on the reef for sustainability.