Calls for South Australia Government to do more to make water safter
A local council on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula wants government action to prevent shark attacks. A 64-year-old man is recovering in hospital after the sixth shark attack in South Australian waters in little more than six months.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Perfect waves roll into world-renowned surf break Blacks on the outskirts of Elliston,
00:06 but virtually no one is in the water.
00:08 The small West Coast community is still in shock after a second shark attack in eight months.
00:13 The last attack was devastating.
00:15 For all of us, I don't know what to do next.
00:17 I don't feel comfortable with my kids going in.
00:20 Elliston schoolteacher Murray Adams is recovering in the Royal Adelaide
00:24 after he was attacked by a shark at Blacks on Tuesday.
00:27 In May, schoolteacher Simon Baccanello was taken by a shark at nearby Walker's Rocks.
00:32 A lot of us sort of just got back in the water after the initial attack here.
00:37 We say that time's going to heal it and then it's happened again,
00:40 so it's like we're kind of waiting for when's the next time.
00:46 Away from the surf breaks, there are people in the water, but parents are still wary.
00:51 There's definitely been a drop in the amount of tourists coming here to surf,
00:57 and that does have an economic impact on the local businesses here.
01:01 The District Council of Elliston has taken on the community's concerns about sharks
01:05 and approached other West Coast councils about the need to pressure the state government
01:09 to take action to protect people.
01:12 Mayor Andrew McLeod says great white shark numbers are increasing and changes are needed,
01:17 but stopped short of calling for a cull.
01:19 Following an attack, fisheries should attempt to terminate the shark responsible for the attack,
01:24 similar to what happens if a dog attacks someone.
01:27 Any response we want to make has got to be science-based to actually deliver an outcome,
01:31 and that's what we're open-minded to.
01:34 Finding consensus on the issue will not be easy.
01:36 crazy.
01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]