Australian authorities said yesterday they would not attempt to hunt down a shark believed to have killed a swimmer while the victim’s family said he would not have wanted the predator to die.
Police suspect that avid diver and fisherman Brian Guest, 51, was taken by a large shark as he was snorkeling with his son near Rockingham, south of Perth on Australia’s west coast, on Saturday.
Witnesses saw flashes of fins and blood in the water and nothing has been found of Guest except some shreds believed to have come from his wetsuit.
Fremantle Water Police, who were yesterday searching the area for any remains, said there would be no attempt to hunt the shark.
“There’s no way of knowing which shark it would be,” Senior Sergeant Greg Trew said. “We could hunt down every shark from here to eternity without knowing whether we had the right one.”
As several Perth beaches were closed yesterday because of a shark sighting, Guest’s family and friends said he had a deep respect for the ocean and its hazards and would not have wanted the animal killed.
Guest’s 24-year-old son Daniel, who had been snorkeling for crabs with his father when the older man disappeared, said his father was aware of the risks of the sea.
“Dad loved and respected the ocean environment,” he told reporters.
Writing on a fishing Web site forum, Brian Guest made clear his love of the water and its creatures, saying in 2005 he did not think sharks should be killed to reduce the risk to swimmers.
A year earlier he had written: “I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it,” national news agency AAP said.
A helicopter searching for Guest spotted a large shark about 200m off Perth’s popular Cottesloe Beach early yesterday, forcing its closure and that of surrounding beaches.
But leading shark researcher Rory McAuley said despite the idea perpetuated by Hollywood movies such as Jaws that sharks repeatedly attack, this view was not held up by science.
“The old theory of the rogue shark that gets a taste for humans and repeatedly attacks has really been discredited over the past 30 years,” said McAuley, a senior research scientist with the state Department of Fisheries.
“What we are talking about here is probably a white pointer shark and white pointers are very mobile, highly migratory, so the ones in Perth are transient and don’t hang around long,” he told the Sunday Times. “There is no one reason why sharks attack.”
As the search for Guest continued, another man was recounting his close shave with a 5m great white shark in a separate incident off a northern Sydney beach on Saturday.
Steve Kulcsar’s kayak was hit by the shark, knocking him into the sea and forcing him to tread water for a minute as the giant fish swam rings around him, reports said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS