Port Stephens is the 'sharkiest' place to fish

My last post covered the recent shark attack at Port Stephens, where 24-year-old Lisa Mondy was  mauled on the face and arms by a great white shark after she fell off a wakeboard at Jimmys Beach. She underwent 15 hours of surgery to re-attach a severed left arm.

I have lifted the following facts from David Lockwood's weekly fishing column in The Sun-Herald. It does help explain why Mondy was attacked.

Lockwood writes that of all the places he's fished over the years Port Stephens, on the NSW mid-north coast, is the 'sharkiest'.

'Stand on the basalt rocks at Tomaree Headland, one of the sentinels to Port Stephens, and you can see the sharks shadowing the vast migrating sea mullet, Australian salmon and slimy mackeral schools,' he writes.

Lockwood claims to have spotted 27 sharks during a low-altitude flight over the Hunter coast, which encompasses Port Stephens.

He talked to an aerial shark-spotting tour operator who said a fatality from a shark attack was 'imminent'. Lucky Lisa.

A local fisherman said he saw a 'white shark' (I assume we're talking about GREAT whites) 'leap out of the water and take a seagull just metres from where he was surfing', while another bloke photographed great whites feeding in water 'less than waist deep'.

Autumn is the peak season for sharks on the Hunter coast, where schools of baitfish trace the beaches and headlands during their northerly migration. The 50 kilometres along the coast from Stockton to Seal Rocks is also a well known great white nursery.

The most recent news report is at:
http://www.news.com.au/national/joyride-ends-in-the-jaws-of-maneater/story-e6frfkvr-1226023659041

Lockwood advises readers to 'play if safe in Port Stephens'.

I'll take that onboard and stay there.

Photo of Lisa Mondy from http://www.news.com.au/ story (link is above).

Shark attack at Nelson Bay blows the dawn and dusk theory out of the water

In past posts I've often quoted the shark defenders' mantra: these predators of the deep only attack hapless humans who get in their way when the sharks are feeding around dawn and dusk.

I swam in Sydney Harbour last week with this comforting thought whooshing through my oh-so powerful arms and legs.

I now have to concede there are exceptions to the rule. At least one.

A great white shark yesterday mauled a 24-year-old woman after she fell off a wakeboard at Jimmy's Beach at Port Stephens on the NSW mid-north coast.

It has since been reported that the victim, Lisa Mondy, has had her left arm re-attached in a seven-hour operation.

The time of the attack wasn't dawn or dusk. It was LUNCH TIME - 1pm to be exact.

A local recreational fisherman told a news reporter that the ocean at this time of year is alive with baitfish, which attract sharks, and Jimmy's Beach is a known shark "hot spot".

He added that in the past five years he's noticed an increase in the number of sharks around Port Stephens. I'm talking about IN the water.

This is unnerving.

There could be valid reasons for the increase, but the following two are just me wildly speculating:

1. The water closer to the shore is cleaner because sewerage gets pumped further out.
2. The water is warmer than it used to be in the old days because of global warming?

Dunno. Don't care. I respect the shark, but I don't feel like a close encounter of any kind.