Carcharodon carcharias, known as the Great White Shark; is one of the most magnificent beasts to roam the oceans. With a life span of 70+ years* (Donald 2014), and the ability to eventually grow 6.4 metres in length, or larger (Encyclopedia of Life n.d.), it's impressive not only for its size, but also it's speed and agility. Great Whites like most mega-fauna are functionally warm-blooded due to a phenomenon known as gigantothermy, their large bulk and smaller relative skin surface area makes it easier to conserve warmth (Wallace 2009), and like several other of the more active shark species, known as lamnids, they also maintain a warmer body temperature because of a very elegant heat transfer system in which blood which is warmed by the activity of large muscles (and what muscles they are, these sharks sure can leap), warms the ocean-chilled blood being pumped in from the gills before it reaches the muscles (Helfman et al. 1997, 83-86). This conserves warmth for the muscles, and allows these sharks to be more active, and to range through colder oceans (Ibid.).
Great White Sharks have adapted as transoceanic migrators, meaning that they cross oceans to feed and reproduce. Nicole, a female Great White tagged off South Africa, travelled between South Africa, Western Australia, and back again, within a nine month period, and scientists think it's possible that Great Whites might use celestial cues to navigate, just like human sailors (WCS 2005).
Great White Sharks rarely display aggression towards human (despite being entirely wild animals), and deep sea diver Ocean Ramsey regularly proves this by hitch-hiking her way through the ocean on the dorsal fin of these giants:
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My government, the government of Western Australia, has recently decided to begin culling this already vulnerable species.
This is a terrible decision, as being an apex predator, the removal of the Great White Shark will destabilise the ocean's ecosystems. It's also not a local issue, as being that these sharks are transoceanic migrators (a fact that is recognised by our federal Department of Wildlife), they are not local anywhere, but instead belong to the world's oceans.
Australian Navy diver Paul de Gelder (who lost limbs in a shark attack) has vociferously argued against every element of the proposed cull, ending his argument with:
“The ocean is not our back yard swimming pool and we shouldn't expect it to be one. It's a wondrous, beautiful, dangerous place that provides our planet with all life. It and it's inhabitants need protection from those that would do it harm.” (de Gelder 2014)Eight other shark attack survivors are also protesting the cull.
Putting aside (for a moment) that shark attacks trail nearly every other cause of death of injury to afflict Western Australians**; this attempt to effectively remove sharks which people feel (irrationally) threatened by would necessitate culling Great White Sharks into extinction. Hooks will be used to catch sharks (and plenty of other sea creatures besides that), and all sharks over 3 meters in length will be slaughtered. Those are the sexually mature specimens necessary to the species survival – female Great Whites are not sexually mature until they reach a length of between 4.5 and 5 metres in length (Encyclopedia of Life n.d.).
Scientists have been quick to point out both how terrible this cull's effects would be in an open letter by a 102 scientists, and how many other measures could be taken (including tagging sharks to ping alerts when they near populated areas, a measure that's already being used to track 300 sharks).
Please, wherever you are in the world, raise awareness of this issue and protest it. If you're in Australia, head to one of the protest rallies on February 1st (details here). If you're not able to make it to a rally, write to Premier Colin Barnett to express your discontent and email Western Australia's Environmental Protection Agency at info@epa.wa.gov.au to ask them to reject the shark cull.
*disturbingly, the measure used to calculate the age of Great White Sharks was their exposure to nuclear bombs in the '50s and '60s.
**though here are some quick statistics:
Since 1791 when Australian national records began, there have been 217 fatal sharks attacks, and 675 shark attacks resulting in injury. That's (over 223 years) an average of less than one shark induced fatality a year, and 3 injuries caused by shark attacks per year (Australian Geographic 2014).
Considering how much time Australians spend in the ocean (possibly more than any other large nation, given that the vast majority of our population lives on the coast, and we enjoy exploring the wonderful collection of shipwrecks along the Western Australian coast***, as well as our pictureque reefs), that's a pretty low fatality rate.
The blood-lust fervour to kill these sharks is incredibly disproportionate, and already locals have begun indiscriminately killing sharks (of various species), ahead of the government endorsed cull (Source: WARNING, graphic images of mutilated shark and ray carcasses).
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No equivalent outrage is being made about the fact that an average of 70 women are murdered by their male partners in Australia, every year (that's an average of more than one woman murdered every week) (Pickering 2014), which I can infer to mean that Premier Colin Barnett (who is responsible for the cull) finds men who murder women to be creatures worthy of greater sympathy.
***Western Australia is called 'The Shipwreck Coast'. I was quite furious to see an article labelling out coast as “dangerous” because of sharks. I can only assume the idiot who wrote it wasn't local, because we've had more than 1650 recorded shipwrecks (Western Australian Museum n.d.) (which vastly exceed the number of fatal shark attacks anywhere in Australia, in all of recorded history), so by any measure, the most dangerous thing in Western Australia's waters, is our own coast and waters. You can wave at the skeleton of the Omeo from Fremantle when the tide is low.
References
de Gelder, P. 2014. Kill Em All!!! http://pauldegelder.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/kill-em-all-firstly-for-anyone-that-has.html (accessed January 21, 2014).
Donald, R. 2014. Great White Sharks Life Span Proven To Be As Long As Humans. http://www.utahpeoplespost.com/2014/01/great-white-sharks-life-span-proven-to-be-as-long-as-humans/ (accessed January 22, 2014).
Encyclopedia of Life. n.d. Carcharodon carcharias Great White Shark. http://eol.org/pages/213726/details (accessed January 22, 2014).
Helfman, G.S., B.B. Collette, and D.E. Facey. 1997. The Diversity of Fishes. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, Massachusetts.
Pickering, C. 2014. Charlie Pickering wants to speak to you about your priorities. http://www.mamamia.com.au/domestic-violence-2/charlie-pickering-chat-priorities/ (accessed January 21, 2014).
Wallace, B. 2009. Gigantothermy: Size Matters. http://deepseanews.com/2009/04/gigantothermy-size-matters/ (accessed January 22, 2014).
Western Australian Museum. n.d. Shipwreck Databases Western Australian Museum. http://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/wrecks (accessed January 21, 2014).
WCS. 2005. Great White Shark swims 12,400 miles, shocks scientists. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1006-wcs.html (accessed January 21, 2014).
