Shark kills surfer at Shelly Beach in Oz: are the media blowing it out of proportion?

  • Text by HUCK HQ
The Killer Myth — Shark conversationists call for a measured response to a fatal shark attack at Shelly Beach, New South Wales.

A surfer has been tragically killed by a shark at Shelly Beach on the east coast of Australia.

The surfer was apparently sitting on his board mid-Monday morning, February 9, in the line-up with other surfers – about 60m offshore – when the shark attacked him, tearing both his legs off.

Although other surfers in the water heroically brought his body back to shore and tried giving him emergency first aid, he died from loss of blood.

It’s a complete tragedy, which is being felt by the local New South Wales community – where there have been two other fatal shark attacks in the last 10 months – but shark conversationists are calling for news media to not over-exaggerate the threat.

Speaking to The Guardian, shark expert Daniel Bucher said it was normal for there to be more sightings in the summer: “Generally there are more sightings when the water’s warm, and that’s because the sharks hunt more actively, because they have higher metabolic rates.” He said shark attack rates had remained relatively stable in the past 20 years, even as Australia’s population and tourist numbers had soared. “You would presume the number of people in the water would also have increased, yet the number of people interacting with sharks hasn’t changed. That suggests the number of sharks in the water has actually gone down.”

Huck wrote extensively about media shark hype in 2009. “People get sick of statistics, but we know through science that sharks are not targeting us,” said Alison Kock, chief biologist at the South African Save Our Seas Shark Institute. “It blows my mind how when there is a shark attack the newspapers will still be running the story two weeks later. Even wildlife documentaries are often inaccurate. I’ve personally been involved in scripts that have been sent to me to fact check and told them, ‘Look, this is completely wrong, we know this isn’t true anymore,’ but it doesn’t make it as interesting, so they leave it in.”

The article warned that the disappearance of sharks from our oceans – mostly through overfishing although shark nets and safety killings add to the problem – is not as unlikely as it might once have been. And if it were to happen, the repercussions would be far-reaching as, for example, world fish stocks could decline even further as lower-tier ocean predators swim into the shark’s void. “In many ways the shark is the poster child for the decline of the sea,” said George Burgess of Shark Attack File. “If this apex predator, which through 400 million years of evolution does kill humans, rightly or wrongly, is able to so readily be struck down by humans in less than 100 years, what does that say for the rest of the sea?”


Latest on Huck

Smiling person in black wetsuit riding surfboard on calm ocean with rocky hills in background.
Sport

Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers

The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.

Written by: Sam Haddad

Dimly lit underground carpark, long winding corridor with concrete walls, floor, and pipes above.
Activism

Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help

Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.

Written by: Ciaran Thapar

Colourful embroidered jackets worn by two people, with skateboarder visible in background. Bright colours and graphic designs on the clothing.
Sport

Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series

True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.

Written by: Huck

Black and white image showing a group of shirtless men socialising, some laughing.
Culture

A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces

Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Four persons - three women and one man - posing outdoors. The women are wearing elaborate clothing and jewellery.
Culture

Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco

A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A person wearing a black cap and holding a sign that says "What made me"
Music

Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’

What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.

Written by: Tony Njoku

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.