Beaches remained closed yesterday along Australia’s west coast after a fatal shark attack that has reignited debate over whether great whites should remain a protected species.
Surfer Benjamin Linden, 24, was bitten in half in a savage attack on Saturday, the fifth such fatality in the region in less than a year.
He was surfing near Wedge Island, north of Perth, with a friend when he was mauled by the huge shark, said to be up to 5m long.
Photo: EPA
A man jet-skiing near him said it was a gruesome scene, with “half a torso” all that remained of Linden. Surfers said they had noticed a large shark in the vicinity in the previous few days and nicknamed it “Brutus” due to its large size.
Local marine scientists have described Australia’s west coast as the deadliest shark attack zone in the world and Western Australia Fisheries Minister Norman Moore expressed concern at the trend of fatalities.
“We have allocated some A$14 million [US$14 million] extra to get a better understanding of the great white sharks and the reasons why the fatalities are occurring,” he told reporters. “I wonder if research might tell us that there are now much greater numbers of great whites than ever before, and maybe we should look at whether they should remain a protected species. This is a very distressing event and to add to the previous four fatalities, it is of great concern to me and to the fisheries department, indeed the government as a whole.”
A tagging and tracking program was introduced last year and has shown the animals, which have no predators other than humans, whales and other sharks, can linger off Australia’s west coast for months at a time.
Moore said he was open to “any suggestions from anybody as to where we go to now, because we seriously have got a problem.”
After the last fatal attack in March, Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett ruled out a culling program, saying it was impossible to protect all people at all times.
“While it’s still a rare occurrence, the ocean is the domain of the shark and we go there with a risk always,” he said at the time.
Sharks are a common feature of Australian waters, but fatal attacks are rare.
Experts say the average number of attacks in Australia — about 15 a year, with at least one being fatal — have increased in line with population growth and the popularity of water sports.
Linden’s girlfriend, Alana Noakes, posted a tribute to him on Facebook.
“I’m devastated to let everyone know that my beautiful man ... was the surfer who was taken by the shark at Wedge,” she said. “He was the love of my life, my best friend, my rock and my soulmate. Let’s remember that he was doing something that meant the world to him. Surfing was his soul, his life, his culture and his passion.”
Western Australian waters are home to more than 100 species of shark, according to the state fisheries department, ranging in size from the pygmy shark at just 30cm, to the whale shark that grows up to 12m.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the