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On Wed, 1 Jun 1994, Prime Rat wrote:

> I believe C. carcharias is protected in South Australia.

It is now protected in California as well.

> This is the 
> correct strategy since these are apparently very territoral animals.  If one 
> is removed from an area several smaller, less well behaved White Pointers 
> will take it's place.  Happened off Melbourne (Victoria) several years ago.  

This is very interesting.  We had a big Tiger Shark scare a while back
here in Hawaii.  We had a series of very unfortunate attacks (a couple of
which were quite tragic), and a corresponding desire by many in the public
sector to respond by eliminating the "beasts" from the reefs.  I
vigorously tried to convey to people that removal of tiger sharks does not
neccessarily equate to reduction in liklihood of attack (this is especially
true because the probability of an attack is already so low that it cannot
be accurately calculated). Despite our efforts, several hunts by the state
were conducted, and numerous vigilante groups ended up killing a lot of
tiger sharks.  In one case, they did a hunt at a particular beach and
caught four tiger sharks in one night.  They went out again the next night and
didn't catch any.  A week later, a surfer was attacked at that same place.
 Although I do not have any data to support it, I suggested the
possibility that removal of certain "home-turf" tigers might allow
younger, perhaps more more aggressive tigers to come in an search for new
food sources.  I don't really believe this, but it sounds like there may
be some evidence from white pointers in Australia.  My brother has noticed
that smaller whites appear to be more dangerous to humans than larger ones
off the Farallon Inslands (California).

> Anyway, we are entering their world.  Seems a bit unfair to wipe them out of 
> their home just becasue we want to visit.

I just wish more people would share that perspective.

Aloha,

Rich

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