Great White Shark Frenzy
Reporter: Anthony Hoy
Producer: Paul Steindl
Voice Over: Graham Davis
Cameraman: Les Seymour
Sound: Scott Pritchard
Editor: Paulo Febbo
Executive Producer: John Lyons
Rolf Czabayski, Tour Operator
The Great White is the top predator, top of the food chain. Theres nothing that can harm him, the only one who can harm him is man
Kim Penalurick. Abalone Diver:
Its a heck of a killing machine, its huge, the feeling you get as they go past is a bit of a surprise, thats for sure.
Reporter:
Because Australians live in such a huge dry continent most have a love affair with the coast and the surrounding seas .. But below the surface the ocean also harbours some of mankinds deepest and most primeval fears
Rod Fox. Tour Operator
People dont want to deal with and be part of the fear that is associated with being eaten alive. And my policy has been over the years is we have to learn to live with the sharks and not just kill them from fear.
Reporter:
The opportunity to confront those fears is being offered to adventurous souls. An up close encounter with the great white shark is available through tour operators in South Australia
Bill Spurr. SA Dept of Tourism
Well we are well known for it, not only nationally but also internationally and its high yield adventure tourism, attracts a lot of international people here and international attention. Look it is a niche market and not many people do it and not many want to do it but those people that do do it, really have the opportunity here off the coast of Port Lincoln.
Reporter:
The people of Port Lincoln know the Great White and the danger it poses well. It is a town that has made its fortune from the sea. There are more millionaires per head here its said than anywhere else in Australia.
Rolf Czabayski . Tour Operator:
We have been very successful last season every trip we made we have seen sharks. A 100% success rate and all the tourists are very happy so thats what you want happy customers
Reporter:
Rolf Czabayski is a tour operator who has injected over 2 million dollars into the shark adventure business. One of two operators licensed for this type of encounter Rolf has had the rich and famous jumping in with the man eaters
Rolf Czabayski
My clients come from all walks of life really but Ive had very famous people. I had Michael Schumaker here, he done it, and I had Greg Norman here he has done it, I had Pierluigi Martini Formula One also done it, I get many many people from everywhere in the world.
Reporter:
A typical tour involves a trip out to the Neptune Islands where the sharks are attracted to the boat with burly or chum and the offcuts from the local tuna factories are offered as bait.
Reporter:
Were about 30 k off the SA coast and this is GW shark territory. The NZ fur seals pups on these islands attract the GWs and the Calypso Star brings a stream of tourists who want to inter-react with these predators.
There is no doubt that these close encounters with the terrors from the deep are a compelling experience. But a debate on whether man should be attracting and training these animals in much same way as we train circus animals or seals, is now underway in the world of marine science.
John West Curator, International Registry of Australian Shark Attack Files:
Sharks can be trained, theres plenty of evidence in terms of lab. training of sharks to discern from colours and textures and things like that, where they can touch buttons and get rewarded that sort of stuff, so yes they can be.
Rolf Czabayski:
Q: Is it true you attract larger numbers of sharks to Austs coastline and increase the probability of attack?
A: No way in the world. That is baloney. The sharks are there, the sharks have always been there and where Im operating from is about 45 miles out from Port Lincoln, in Neverland, theres no one there. Theres only 2 islands, the next stop is Antarctica, the south pole. So we dont attract them, the sharks have to be there, number one, otherwise we dont get them, and the sharks are there for one reason only, the seals, the puppies of the seals and thats the food they are eating.
Reporter:
But there is feeling among locals that the tourism activity encourages sharks and that in turn puts people in danger
Rolf Czabayski:
I think a lot of people are against it because they reckon we train the sharks to feed and all that, but its not true. We have many other operations in Port Lincoln who attract sharks and all the people are against that to, but that is close to town we are 45 miles away, We dont attract anything to Port Lincoln or anywhere near there.
Dave Buckland Abalone Diver:
I just think it encourages sharks to interact with boats a bit more, Im not dead against it but I do think it encourages sharks to come up to a boat with a bit more confidence.
Q: Youve had that experience yourself in recent times?
A: Saw a shark 4 weeks ago whilst diving for abalone in about 40 foot of water and it definitely wasnt scared of me.
Reporter:
Abalone diver Dave Buckland has seen the worst a shark can do.
Dave Buckland:
My brother was scallop diving at Smokey Bay which is 300 kms west of Port Lincoln and he was in about 30ft of water. I dont know what happened but he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he got taken by a 4 to 5 metre shark and obviously it has been a horrible experience and something that Ill never forget and I struggled to get back to work for awhile but Im coping with it now.
Kim Penalurick. Abalone Diver:
Id just come back to my bag and out the corner of my eye I saw this flash, My first thoughts were a dolphin and I looked down and I could have just about reached out and touched it and there was a White right along side me ..
Reporter:
Kim Penalurick, another abalone diver, thinks the sharks have recently become more aggressive.
Kim Penalurick:
This is the 6th one Ive seen and usually they are a bit more docile when they come up to you. They still give you a nasty shock but this one just came past and gave us a couple of quick kicks with its tail and just seemed agitated. Its just a feeling you get from the animal.
Reporter:
These Abalone divers are a tough breed and dont
scare easily. Kim is nonchalant about the danger to himself
Kim Penalurick:
I dont think there is anything that will ever be done and I wouldnt ever really expect it. Its just a part of my job. In the bay here, or off Adelaide beaches or where there is numbers of people, I really think that when one starts hanging around the authorities should do something about it
Reporter:
A cage allows you to enter a sharks domain. You can watch them and they, in turn can watch you. This up close exposure is a world away from Rod Foxs first encounter with a Great White.
Rodney Fox:
This is our history room with a bit of some of the work weve done in the past, and it features a wax figure here made by Ripleys museums. They used the replica of the photographs that were taken on the operation table when they were stitching me up. Its a continuous reminder of how luck I am and how white sharks have become part of my life.
Reporter:
Rod is the other operator running shark adventure tours. His encounter with a Great white 40 years ago changed his life forever.
Rodney Fox:
I dived down to spear a fish and I was just about to spear it when this huge big crunch hit me in the chest, knocked me thru the water, the mask off my face, the gun out of my hand and I knew I was in really big trouble. I tried to gouge around the sharks eyes as hard as I could. and it seemed to let me go. I got up to the surface a boat came, picked me up raced me off to hospital, and they stitched me up and Im here today.
Reporter:
Shark attacks are rare but when they do happen, they raise community alarm, along with questions about the behaviour of these animals at the top of the food chain.
Rodney Fox:
Great White sharks eat things as big as humans every day, they eat real dolphins and seals as their main food, stingrays and things like that, and the chances of shark attack. I cant believe there arent more shark attacks, and its only in the last couple of years with satellite tags that we are starting to realise they take over the whole ocean and there are fewer than we thought and they just pass through every now and again.
Reporter:
Tagging and recording sharks is a way Rolf Czabayski and Rod Fox help the under funded Australian research programs into Great Whites. But it wasnt always so. They were once the hunters, turning the predator into prey.
File Footage Documentary 1970.
Archive Voice Over:
To some like Rodney Fox theres an additional compulsion, but after his traumatic experience with the white shark, the first return to the sea was a numbing psychological barrier to overcome. He set out , as some Pacific Islanders do when someone is attacked by sharks to revenge himself
Rolf Czabayski:
Last week we tagged 5 . 5 sharks . New ones.
Q: For your own ID purposes?
A: No all the information goes to CSIRO and fisheries so they get the information, so they can do a data base which they keep and know exactly what happened.
Reporter:
Both operators defend their practice of attracting sharks with fish and chum, and deny that the sharks are trained to expect food from the back of a boat
Rodney Fox:
I think sharks are fairly particular in what they do eat but every now and again you will always get a sick one or one that hasnt eaten for a while or a set of circumstances that attract it for a bite. So thats not necessarily going to mean that we are training the sharks in anyway.
Rolf Czabayski:
Q: You are feeding the sharks large quantities of fish are your bait and trained sharks more dangerous, more antagonistic and more likely to attack when not feed?
A: No not really, the sharks are hungry all the time. They eat. I give them a little bit of food, I try to give them only a few pieces every time. When I see one new one then we pull it away from them so its no large quantities
Reporter:
Late last year 18 year old Nick Peterson was killed at this popular beach as he was being towed behind a boat But the shark tour operators deny any link between Nicks death and their activities
John West.
No I dont think theres any relations to it at all, the sharks most likely been following them for a while when they were on the board and when you look from the bottom of the ocean and you look up and see a board with some legs hanging over the sides it looks like a seal .
Reporter:
John West is curator of the Australian Shark Attack Files at Sydneys Taronga Zoo. He says the jury is still out on the effect close encounters with man has on the behaviour of GW sharks
John West:
Its always important to learn more about the natural environment and the sharks, in this case, sharks and their behaviour. The only trouble with burling up and attracting them by food is that theyre not really related to natural behaviours when youre observing them.
Q: What about the sound of engines, banging on the sides of boats?
A: Certainly theres a little bit of evidence to say that areas where fishermen certainly congregate and do fishing activities, that the sound of boats may attract sharks to the area when boats turn up yes there is evidence on that yes.
Rolf Czabayski:
Some boats they will more attracted to than others.
Q: Is that the case?
A: Yeah I think that when you are fishing and have the motor running or you launch a dingy the noise I think attracts them too.
Q: I heard that they are more attracted to your boat than others. Is that the case?
A: One really doesnt 100% know but because we put the bait out that is maybe why they come to us .
Reporter:
The operators are regulated by authorities in South Australia. They decide who can hold a license and the areas where they can operate. But recently theyve become concerned about some of the operational practices.
John Presser. SA Dept of Fisheries:
Theres always innuendo and comments made from time to time that maybe they arent doing the right thing on some of these trips. All we can do about that is contact the 2 people who have authorisation to burly for sharks and make sure they understand what is required under the guidelines and that they understand whats in the code of conduct and to make sure they arent undertaking things, which we would consider, of a dangerous nature.
Reporter:
There have also been reports of unlicensed operators offering cheap shark diving tours out of Port Lincoln. They are reported to be using pig and horse blood, a banned practice, to attract the sharks.
Upsot Rolf Czabayski-
Theres a shark .. hes coming ..come on baby ..Oh yeah yeah .
Reporter:
Our fascination with the deep and what lies below will always be with us, and people like Rolf Czbayski will be happy to show us.
Rolf Czabayski:
Come on boys and girls ..(bang, bang, bang) .
Reporter: Anthony Hoy
Producer: Paul Steindl
Voice Over: Graham Davis
Cameraman: Les Seymour
Sound: Scott Pritchard
Editor: Paulo Febbo
Executive Producer: John Lyons
Rolf Czabayski, Tour Operator
The Great White is the top predator, top of the food chain. Theres nothing that can harm him, the only one who can harm him is man
Kim Penalurick. Abalone Diver:
Its a heck of a killing machine, its huge, the feeling you get as they go past is a bit of a surprise, thats for sure.
Reporter:
Because Australians live in such a huge dry continent most have a love affair with the coast and the surrounding seas .. But below the surface the ocean also harbours some of mankinds deepest and most primeval fears
Rod Fox. Tour Operator
People dont want to deal with and be part of the fear that is associated with being eaten alive. And my policy has been over the years is we have to learn to live with the sharks and not just kill them from fear.
Reporter:
The opportunity to confront those fears is being offered to adventurous souls. An up close encounter with the great white shark is available through tour operators in South Australia
Bill Spurr. SA Dept of Tourism
Well we are well known for it, not only nationally but also internationally and its high yield adventure tourism, attracts a lot of international people here and international attention. Look it is a niche market and not many people do it and not many want to do it but those people that do do it, really have the opportunity here off the coast of Port Lincoln.
Reporter:
The people of Port Lincoln know the Great White and the danger it poses well. It is a town that has made its fortune from the sea. There are more millionaires per head here its said than anywhere else in Australia.
Rolf Czabayski . Tour Operator:
We have been very successful last season every trip we made we have seen sharks. A 100% success rate and all the tourists are very happy so thats what you want happy customers
Reporter:
Rolf Czabayski is a tour operator who has injected over 2 million dollars into the shark adventure business. One of two operators licensed for this type of encounter Rolf has had the rich and famous jumping in with the man eaters
Rolf Czabayski
My clients come from all walks of life really but Ive had very famous people. I had Michael Schumaker here, he done it, and I had Greg Norman here he has done it, I had Pierluigi Martini Formula One also done it, I get many many people from everywhere in the world.
Reporter:
A typical tour involves a trip out to the Neptune Islands where the sharks are attracted to the boat with burly or chum and the offcuts from the local tuna factories are offered as bait.
Reporter:
Were about 30 k off the SA coast and this is GW shark territory. The NZ fur seals pups on these islands attract the GWs and the Calypso Star brings a stream of tourists who want to inter-react with these predators.
There is no doubt that these close encounters with the terrors from the deep are a compelling experience. But a debate on whether man should be attracting and training these animals in much same way as we train circus animals or seals, is now underway in the world of marine science.
John West Curator, International Registry of Australian Shark Attack Files:
Sharks can be trained, theres plenty of evidence in terms of lab. training of sharks to discern from colours and textures and things like that, where they can touch buttons and get rewarded that sort of stuff, so yes they can be.
Rolf Czabayski:
Q: Is it true you attract larger numbers of sharks to Austs coastline and increase the probability of attack?
A: No way in the world. That is baloney. The sharks are there, the sharks have always been there and where Im operating from is about 45 miles out from Port Lincoln, in Neverland, theres no one there. Theres only 2 islands, the next stop is Antarctica, the south pole. So we dont attract them, the sharks have to be there, number one, otherwise we dont get them, and the sharks are there for one reason only, the seals, the puppies of the seals and thats the food they are eating.
Reporter:
But there is feeling among locals that the tourism activity encourages sharks and that in turn puts people in danger
Rolf Czabayski:
I think a lot of people are against it because they reckon we train the sharks to feed and all that, but its not true. We have many other operations in Port Lincoln who attract sharks and all the people are against that to, but that is close to town we are 45 miles away, We dont attract anything to Port Lincoln or anywhere near there.
Dave Buckland Abalone Diver:
I just think it encourages sharks to interact with boats a bit more, Im not dead against it but I do think it encourages sharks to come up to a boat with a bit more confidence.
Q: Youve had that experience yourself in recent times?
A: Saw a shark 4 weeks ago whilst diving for abalone in about 40 foot of water and it definitely wasnt scared of me.
Reporter:
Abalone diver Dave Buckland has seen the worst a shark can do.
Dave Buckland:
My brother was scallop diving at Smokey Bay which is 300 kms west of Port Lincoln and he was in about 30ft of water. I dont know what happened but he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he got taken by a 4 to 5 metre shark and obviously it has been a horrible experience and something that Ill never forget and I struggled to get back to work for awhile but Im coping with it now.
Kim Penalurick. Abalone Diver:
Id just come back to my bag and out the corner of my eye I saw this flash, My first thoughts were a dolphin and I looked down and I could have just about reached out and touched it and there was a White right along side me ..
Reporter:
Kim Penalurick, another abalone diver, thinks the sharks have recently become more aggressive.
Kim Penalurick:
This is the 6th one Ive seen and usually they are a bit more docile when they come up to you. They still give you a nasty shock but this one just came past and gave us a couple of quick kicks with its tail and just seemed agitated. Its just a feeling you get from the animal.
Reporter:
These Abalone divers are a tough breed and dont
scare easily. Kim is nonchalant about the danger to himself
Kim Penalurick:
I dont think there is anything that will ever be done and I wouldnt ever really expect it. Its just a part of my job. In the bay here, or off Adelaide beaches or where there is numbers of people, I really think that when one starts hanging around the authorities should do something about it
Reporter:
A cage allows you to enter a sharks domain. You can watch them and they, in turn can watch you. This up close exposure is a world away from Rod Foxs first encounter with a Great White.
Rodney Fox:
This is our history room with a bit of some of the work weve done in the past, and it features a wax figure here made by Ripleys museums. They used the replica of the photographs that were taken on the operation table when they were stitching me up. Its a continuous reminder of how luck I am and how white sharks have become part of my life.
Reporter:
Rod is the other operator running shark adventure tours. His encounter with a Great white 40 years ago changed his life forever.
Rodney Fox:
I dived down to spear a fish and I was just about to spear it when this huge big crunch hit me in the chest, knocked me thru the water, the mask off my face, the gun out of my hand and I knew I was in really big trouble. I tried to gouge around the sharks eyes as hard as I could. and it seemed to let me go. I got up to the surface a boat came, picked me up raced me off to hospital, and they stitched me up and Im here today.
Reporter:
Shark attacks are rare but when they do happen, they raise community alarm, along with questions about the behaviour of these animals at the top of the food chain.
Rodney Fox:
Great White sharks eat things as big as humans every day, they eat real dolphins and seals as their main food, stingrays and things like that, and the chances of shark attack. I cant believe there arent more shark attacks, and its only in the last couple of years with satellite tags that we are starting to realise they take over the whole ocean and there are fewer than we thought and they just pass through every now and again.
Reporter:
Tagging and recording sharks is a way Rolf Czabayski and Rod Fox help the under funded Australian research programs into Great Whites. But it wasnt always so. They were once the hunters, turning the predator into prey.
File Footage Documentary 1970.
Archive Voice Over:
To some like Rodney Fox theres an additional compulsion, but after his traumatic experience with the white shark, the first return to the sea was a numbing psychological barrier to overcome. He set out , as some Pacific Islanders do when someone is attacked by sharks to revenge himself
Rolf Czabayski:
Last week we tagged 5 . 5 sharks . New ones.
Q: For your own ID purposes?
A: No all the information goes to CSIRO and fisheries so they get the information, so they can do a data base which they keep and know exactly what happened.
Reporter:
Both operators defend their practice of attracting sharks with fish and chum, and deny that the sharks are trained to expect food from the back of a boat
Rodney Fox:
I think sharks are fairly particular in what they do eat but every now and again you will always get a sick one or one that hasnt eaten for a while or a set of circumstances that attract it for a bite. So thats not necessarily going to mean that we are training the sharks in anyway.
Rolf Czabayski:
Q: You are feeding the sharks large quantities of fish are your bait and trained sharks more dangerous, more antagonistic and more likely to attack when not feed?
A: No not really, the sharks are hungry all the time. They eat. I give them a little bit of food, I try to give them only a few pieces every time. When I see one new one then we pull it away from them so its no large quantities
Reporter:
Late last year 18 year old Nick Peterson was killed at this popular beach as he was being towed behind a boat But the shark tour operators deny any link between Nicks death and their activities
John West.
No I dont think theres any relations to it at all, the sharks most likely been following them for a while when they were on the board and when you look from the bottom of the ocean and you look up and see a board with some legs hanging over the sides it looks like a seal .
Reporter:
John West is curator of the Australian Shark Attack Files at Sydneys Taronga Zoo. He says the jury is still out on the effect close encounters with man has on the behaviour of GW sharks
John West:
Its always important to learn more about the natural environment and the sharks, in this case, sharks and their behaviour. The only trouble with burling up and attracting them by food is that theyre not really related to natural behaviours when youre observing them.
Q: What about the sound of engines, banging on the sides of boats?
A: Certainly theres a little bit of evidence to say that areas where fishermen certainly congregate and do fishing activities, that the sound of boats may attract sharks to the area when boats turn up yes there is evidence on that yes.
Rolf Czabayski:
Some boats they will more attracted to than others.
Q: Is that the case?
A: Yeah I think that when you are fishing and have the motor running or you launch a dingy the noise I think attracts them too.
Q: I heard that they are more attracted to your boat than others. Is that the case?
A: One really doesnt 100% know but because we put the bait out that is maybe why they come to us .
Reporter:
The operators are regulated by authorities in South Australia. They decide who can hold a license and the areas where they can operate. But recently theyve become concerned about some of the operational practices.
John Presser. SA Dept of Fisheries:
Theres always innuendo and comments made from time to time that maybe they arent doing the right thing on some of these trips. All we can do about that is contact the 2 people who have authorisation to burly for sharks and make sure they understand what is required under the guidelines and that they understand whats in the code of conduct and to make sure they arent undertaking things, which we would consider, of a dangerous nature.
Reporter:
There have also been reports of unlicensed operators offering cheap shark diving tours out of Port Lincoln. They are reported to be using pig and horse blood, a banned practice, to attract the sharks.
Upsot Rolf Czabayski-
Theres a shark .. hes coming ..come on baby ..Oh yeah yeah .
Reporter:
Our fascination with the deep and what lies below will always be with us, and people like Rolf Czbayski will be happy to show us.
Rolf Czabayski:
Come on boys and girls ..(bang, bang, bang) .