Speaker 1: The twenty seven year old surfer had been in the
Speaker 1: water for just seconds when he was attacked by the bullsharks.
Speaker 1: Bull shark attacks over the last forty eight hours. All right,
Speaker 1: Oh that is frightening, especially right in the middle of summer.
Speaker 2: It is terrifying. Melissa Marquez is a shark expert from
Speaker 2: Science and Technology Australia. She joins us this morning, How
Speaker 2: I melt thanks time, no, thanks for having me so,
Speaker 2: look we're hearing all these shark attacks at me in
Speaker 2: New South Wales. How worried do we need to be
Speaker 2: here in Victoria, especially Melbourne.
Speaker 3: Look, the perfect storm has kind of happened here in
Speaker 3: Sydney in regards to all of the rain that we've
Speaker 3: been having. Right, and it's rain too, it's all the
Speaker 3: bites have been linked to bull sharks, and so bull
Speaker 3: sharks love to thrive in warm, murky waters and harbors
Speaker 3: and estuaries, and your guys, is cold or water just
Speaker 3: makes it less suitable for bull sharks. So you don't
Speaker 3: have kind of the recipe for this perfect storm down there.
Speaker 4: So in Port Phillip Bay where we are here in Melbourne,
Speaker 4: you'd be familiar with it. Do we have any sharks.
Speaker 4: You know, have there been any sightings? I know there
Speaker 4: was some form of shark down Port Seaway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, shark activity is a natural occurrence
Speaker 3: if there's an ocean, more likely than not there is
Speaker 3: some sort of shark in the area. We just happened
Speaker 3: to coexist with them a lot more peacefully, more so
Speaker 3: than not. So chances are the probably sharks there, you
Speaker 3: just haven't had to deal with them.
Speaker 1: So hearing on the news there's been four people bitten
Speaker 1: by sharks in four days makes me go, I'm never
Speaker 1: going to the beach again.
Speaker 5: That's me.
Speaker 1: I'm hanging up my snorkel. I'm never going back. Should
Speaker 1: we be scared going to the beach?
Speaker 3: No, I mean, look again, it's these kind of like
Speaker 3: what's happened recently. Obviously it's very very scary sounding and
Speaker 3: it's very tragic, but it's because of this rainfall that
Speaker 3: we had that has created kind of this environment for
Speaker 3: these book sharks to really thrive and be in the
Speaker 3: area and so on a normal kind of day, No,
Speaker 3: it's it's just your regular, your regular kind of rest.
Speaker 4: Similarly, excuse my ignorance. So I'm taking my boat out
Speaker 4: right on Sydney Harbor.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm manifesting it and I want to jump in the water.
Speaker 4: Is there ever a telltale sign that there is or
Speaker 4: could be a shark around around me or around the
Speaker 4: water or is it just sort of chance?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, probably the most telltale sign is the fin.
Speaker 3: So you see a fin, probably don't going.
Speaker 4: Schools of fish ure. Is Is there anything that any idea?
Speaker 4: Exactly that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly that. So if you see a lot of
Speaker 3: those small silvery fish, those beat balls around, they're congregating
Speaker 3: quite closely. If they're jumping. Especially if you see a
Speaker 3: lot of fish jumping around, maybe something underneath they're chasing them.
Speaker 3: If you see other people kind of fishing around and
Speaker 3: maybe throwing some of the scraps overboard as well, that
Speaker 3: might be something that attracts them as well. And especially
Speaker 3: if you're kind of in this area and you've got
Speaker 3: a bunch of just fresh water that's nutrient rich coming
Speaker 3: in and you see quite murky water, probably avoid that
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: Times of the day to avoid swimming. Is it sunrise
Speaker 2: something dusk and dawn?
Speaker 5: My mom always told me. Was she right or wrong?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Pretty much?
Speaker 3: Dusk and dawn are when a lot of these sharks
Speaker 3: are active, but we are seeing some of them be
Speaker 3: a bit more active during the daytime as well. So
Speaker 3: really it's just being conscious of your environment and conscious
Speaker 3: of your swimming, so you know, always have your swimming buddy,
Speaker 3: check your environmental arounds, make sure you know that you
Speaker 3: don't have somebody fishing upstream from you, or you don't have,
Speaker 3: you know, a dead floating whale by.
Speaker 2: You take a swim buddy. Someone that's abuses got more
Speaker 2: mate on the bones. Someone looks more appealing.
Speaker 5: I would suggest me probably.
Speaker 2: I'm just talking to you.
Speaker 4: I'm not looking at Melissa. The sharks at the aquarium.
Speaker 4: Are they stoned?
Speaker 3: They just they're really well fed.
Speaker 4: They seem quite friendly.
Speaker 2: Are they on the gummies or are they gummy sharks?
Speaker 3: I mean that you're gonna have to ask the aquarium
Speaker 3: visually people and see what their diet is. But they
Speaker 3: look very well fed.
Speaker 2: And I kind of want to you. You mentioned before law,
Speaker 2: was that your mum told you dusk and dawn avoid
Speaker 2: there's and look, Melissa Markeres is a shark expert. She's
Speaker 2: joining us on the oir this morning. I've got a
Speaker 2: question for you. This is it's a wise time. My
Speaker 2: dad told me, he said, sharks attracted to fear. You
Speaker 2: pee yourself when you're scared. Don't swim near kids at
Speaker 2: the beach because they always pee in the water. Is
Speaker 2: that true? I should avoid swimming near kids because they
Speaker 2: track the sharks.
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe you want to avoid swimming other kids
Speaker 3: because it's it's less peaceful and swimming by the kids. No,
Speaker 3: I think, you know what, I I think there's been
Speaker 3: studies that are not like scientific. I think it's been
Speaker 3: something about like Shark Week is done and stuff like
Speaker 3: that to double check if pe attract sharks. And I
Speaker 3: don't think that was conclusive whatsoever. So feel free to
Speaker 3: pee in the water if you want.
Speaker 1: And what about one of my friends who's a surfer,
Speaker 1: told me, if you have a yellow surfboard, it puts
Speaker 1: the sharks off.
Speaker 5: If you have a red surfboard, they're attracted to it.
Speaker 5: Is that true? Are they attracted to certain colors?
Speaker 3: I mean, I had we've heard of the whole like
Speaker 3: yum yum yellow scenario. I never heard of the bottom
Speaker 3: of a surfboard being red though or yellow. But I
Speaker 3: do know that they're coming up with surfboards with like
Speaker 3: bars on them, like lines on them, to break it
Speaker 3: up as a shark mitigation kind of experiment to see
Speaker 3: if that's something that kind of puts sharks off of
Speaker 3: biting surfboards.
Speaker 2: What about those shark bands I've seen them on Instagram.
Speaker 2: What it's like a magnet band or something that you
Speaker 2: see some surface. Well, do they work?
Speaker 3: Some of them do have shown actually to work against sharks,
Speaker 3: not all sharks, but some of them. For individual sharks,
Speaker 3: it will actually pel them because of that electric kind
Speaker 3: of force field that has I think w A actually
Speaker 3: has a sort of government scheme that if you buy one,
Speaker 3: like of a specific one that's been scientifically tested, they'll
Speaker 3: give you some like remade money back.
Speaker 5: And then if one comes me, do you just punch
Speaker 5: me in the nose? Like mic Fanning?
Speaker 3: Have you ever tried punching anything under water? Like, if
Speaker 3: you go for the nose, you might either completely miss
Speaker 3: or you might end up like in their mouth. I
Speaker 3: go for the gills, go for those little slits on
Speaker 3: the necks, because that's like punching something like in the chest,
Speaker 3: and that would probably work a lot better.
Speaker 2: He stabbed him in the eye.
Speaker 3: Is not that available?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 3: You please don't go randomly stabbing sharks.
Speaker 4: Glad you jumped on us to talk about the sho Glad.
Speaker 3: I mean, I didn't think I was going to be
Speaker 3: talking about sharks being like, but it's been a great
Speaker 3: way to start the morning.
Speaker 5: But seriously, though, because people's killed the shots.
Speaker 2: Shot no no, look write wats and stuff, but I think,
Speaker 2: can we call?
Speaker 5: We can't be calling the shots, can we?
Speaker 3: So so it's been shown that calls do not work
Speaker 3: in regards to the aim that everyone kind of like
Speaker 3: hopes to and to be honest, sharks are significantly less
Speaker 3: dangerous in reality than they're perceived by the public. You know,
Speaker 3: globally there's about seven to one hundred unprovoked shark attacks annually.
Speaker 3: Think about how many people go into the water. Those
Speaker 3: are really really low risks.
Speaker 6: I mean, look, if they start showing up in your
Speaker 6: local parks and taking up parking spots and like pullies
Speaker 6: and pulls, staying a shot about that, but right now,
Speaker 6: you know that's their environment.
Speaker 4: That or on a pool table, Oh that was terrible.
Speaker 3: The pool sharks are taking all of your money.
Speaker 2: There we go, Melissa shock expect joining us on the
Speaker 2: thanks he to on this morning Mate.
Speaker 3: Thanks Melissa, or is my pleasure of good one?
Speaker 2: We should be feeding you to the stone sharks without one.
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