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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: Yes, shocking news over the weekend the death of a

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Speaker 3: surfer Mercury Salaikis on Sydney's northern beaches. It's reignited ongoing

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Speaker 3: conversations around shark nets. This fatal attack horrific, comes amid

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Speaker 3: a stalled government's plan to trial the removal of nets

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Speaker 3: at certain beaches. We're joined now by Dave Pearson, who

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Speaker 3: has survived a shark attack and has some thoughts on this.

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Speaker 2: Dave, Hello, Hey, good morning. How are you today, Rander?

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Speaker 3: I'm not too bad. How is it shocking to think

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Speaker 3: that this attack happened at fresh water? It seems shocking

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Speaker 3: to me.

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Speaker 1: Should I be shocked?

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Speaker 2: Not at all. Unfortunately, there's plenty of sharks out there

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Speaker 2: swimming around, and unfortunately we come in contact with them.

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Speaker 1: But I think Dave what Amanda is saying.

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Speaker 4: Usually we hear about it like remote beaches, beaches in

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Speaker 4: Western Australia, South Australia, right up the North coast, but

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Speaker 4: not so close to home.

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Speaker 2: I guess though. Sidney's been fairly lucky over the last

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Speaker 2: number of years. With you know, you have quite a

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Speaker 2: number of measures down there to try and keep sharks

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Speaker 2: and people separated. But you know, they're not infallible and

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Speaker 2: they're not one hundred percent shark proof, so these things

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Speaker 2: can't happen.

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Speaker 3: What happened to you, Dave? You a bitten by a

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Speaker 3: bull shark? Where did that take place?

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Speaker 2: It happened that crowdyhead on the mid North Coast, just

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Speaker 2: a normal afternoon after work, just as everybody does, goes down,

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Speaker 2: has a surf to wash away their daily troubles, and

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Speaker 2: a bull shark decided I was having too much fun

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Speaker 2: and put an end to my afternoon.

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Speaker 4: Because it's you know, and bull sharks are different to

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Speaker 4: great whites and the like. But did you feel that

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Speaker 4: you wanted to get back in the water after you

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Speaker 4: know you'd been attanked?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I was laying in hospital late that night,

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Speaker 2: I think it was probably maybe one or two o'clock

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Speaker 2: the next morning, and i'd just come back from X

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Speaker 2: rays where they told me they would probably remove my arm,

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Speaker 2: and the nurse asked me if I would surf again,

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Speaker 2: and I went it was a funny question at the time,

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Speaker 2: and I went, yeah, I guess so. My love of

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Speaker 2: the ocean is far greater than my fear of sharks,

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Speaker 2: so I'll definitely start surfing again. And then fortunately they

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Speaker 2: saved my arm and yeah, I'm back in the water.

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Speaker 3: What about the discussion we're having around shark nets, this

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Speaker 3: terrible attack of fresh water there was a shark net

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Speaker 3: in place. A shark net's effective to some extent.

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Speaker 2: They're not made to prevent sharks from coming to the

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Speaker 2: beach there. You know, there are one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: meters long, and they're below the surface, and so the

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Speaker 2: sharks can swim around and below and over them. But

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Speaker 2: from I'm led to believe, you know, from my discussion

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Speaker 2: with sharks scientists, it upsets their pattern and they get

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Speaker 2: confused about what it is and they move on. Sydney

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Speaker 2: also has a number of smart drum lines up and

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Speaker 2: down the beaches as well, which capture any sharks that

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Speaker 2: come in close and they drag them out to sea,

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Speaker 2: put a tag in them so that we can see

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Speaker 2: where them sharks are swimming from then on, because.

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Speaker 3: A lot of other sea life also gets trapped in

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Speaker 3: those nets, doesn't it There is.

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Speaker 2: Some other sea life. I don't think it's it's not

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Speaker 2: as bad as some people make out, but it's also

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Speaker 2: know anything that gets killed in the ocean for the

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Speaker 2: sake of us having a bit of fun causes a

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Speaker 2: lot of conjecture. You know, as a surfer, you know

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Speaker 2: where I surf, we have nothing. We don't have. The

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Speaker 2: closest drum line is either Port McClory or Foster, which

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Speaker 2: is you know, a good forty five minutes drive either way,

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Speaker 2: and yeah, we don't have any king of that tell

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Speaker 2: us us as a shark swimming by, if I look

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Speaker 2: at the sharks smart app, I can predict from what's

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Speaker 2: happening at Foster and Port McClary what the activities are

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Speaker 2: in our area, and just about every day, I can

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Speaker 2: look at that and know that there's white sharks swimming around.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And the technology, really, that's the thing, isn't it's about

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Speaker 4: having guys out on jet skis.

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Speaker 1: It's about drones.

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Speaker 4: We do have the technology to spot where sharks are,

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Speaker 4: and now that you can get an app to find

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Speaker 4: out where they actually are, maybe that's the way forward.

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Speaker 2: It's part of the overall program that we have. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I fly my own personal drinks. This once again were

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Speaker 2: I live, we don't have much, so I'll fly my

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Speaker 2: drone up. We've got another local guy who does a

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Speaker 2: lot of whale watching, so he'll have his drain up

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Speaker 2: there and if he sees a shark around, he'll let

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Speaker 2: us know in the water. But you know, realistically, i'd

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Speaker 2: fly my drone, I put it away, I hop on

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Speaker 2: my surfboard and paddle out. You know, within that ten

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Speaker 2: minutes something could have come, you know, a kilometer up

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Speaker 2: the beach. So it's not infallible, but it's something. If

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Speaker 2: I spot, you know, a large group of fish, I

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Speaker 2: know there's fish around, and if this fish around is

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Speaker 2: possibly sharks as well. So I guess Over the years,

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Speaker 2: if nothing, I've learned more about the ocean and about

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Speaker 2: trying to look after my own safety. And you know,

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Speaker 2: seeing if there's going to something out there, there's not

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Speaker 2: going to be me out there with him.

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Speaker 3: And you know, the weather's warming up, lots of people

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Speaker 3: are going to be heading to the beach and are

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Speaker 3: feeling jumpy.

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Speaker 2: What would you suggest, Yeah, talk to people, you know,

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Speaker 2: when you go to the beach, have a conversation with

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Speaker 2: fellow surfers, and anybody noticed anything in the water, Has

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Speaker 2: there been any fish had been sharted? And once again,

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Speaker 2: you know, the day I was attacked. There was no

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Speaker 2: fish in the water, there was no sign that there

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Speaker 2: could have been a shark, but one come in and

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Speaker 2: had a crack at me. But yet, talk and find out,

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Speaker 2: educate yourself about what's happening in the ocean, you know,

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Speaker 2: find out where the drum lines are, where the where

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Speaker 2: the lifeguards are, and talk to the lifeguards and see

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Speaker 2: if they can fill it in on what's been going

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Speaker 2: on in the ocean. The more we know, the better

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Speaker 2: we are.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, David, Thank you for enlightening us. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much.

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Speaker 2: From any time. Have a wonderful day. And please, if

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Speaker 2: I could say anything, we see on social media a

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Speaker 2: lot of horrible comments about you know, as a full

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Speaker 2: as a poor family there that they are in mourning

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Speaker 2: for a loved one and all he was doing was

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Speaker 2: something that he loved. So if we could just consider

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Speaker 2: that and everyone could just calm down and just say,

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Speaker 2: you know, best wishes to the family, and we hope

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Speaker 2: that feeling repatter.

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Speaker 1: And that's all we do. We're just sending family. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that's it. And you keyboard worries, you know with

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Speaker 1: your comments.

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Speaker 2: Please yeah, because we all got that. We we've all

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Speaker 2: got that. After our sharkt and mentally it puts us

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Speaker 2: into the downward spiral that's horrible to live with. Yes,

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Speaker 2: well said, thank you for thank you for your time,

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Speaker 2: thank you.

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Speaker 1: For joining us. There we goes Dave Pearson. There