Shark attacks warning if beach nets removed

People will be attacked by sharks if the nets deterring them from Dunedin beaches are removed, says veteran Dunedin surfer Gary Barton.

A survivor of a white pointer shark attack off St Clair beach on Christmas Day, 1968, he is concerned that the Dunedin City Council might haul in the St Kilda, St Clair and Brighton nets.

Maintenance costs for the nets are not part of the council's 2004 budget.

"If they take the shark nets out someone is going to be munched up," Mr Barton said.

"The nets are doing their purpose, deterring them sharks away. It would be a big mistake to take them away."

When he was attacked, Mr Barton, then 17, felt as if he had been hit by a car as the white pointer struck from below, knocking him from his new surfboard and dragging him into the water.

As he tried to climb back, the shark savaged his board, leaving teeth marks, each bigger than a 50c coin, he said.

Finally, the shark placed its head on the surfboard and gave him a "big smile", before Mr Barton managed to paddle in, escaping with only a grazed arm.

Mr Barton still surfs but is "very wary", especially now that his son also rides Dunedin waves. People had forgotten about the shark attacks which occurred in the late 1960s, he said.

In her book, Our St Clair - A Resident's History, historian Barbara Newton wrote that four serious incidents had occurred on St Clair and St Kilda beaches during that period. Both Leslie Jordan, in 1964, and fellow surf lifesaver Bill Black, in 1967, were victims of fatal shark attacks.

The drop in incidents since the nets were set in 1970 proved they worked, Mr Barton said.

The only attack since was in 1970 when 16-year-old Barry Watkins received a leg bite requiring 50 stitches.

Quarry Beach Surf Boards owner Graeme Carse favours keeping the nets.

"There are quite a few of them sharks out there."

"It's not just the ones they catch. It's the ones they deter as well."

The cost of maintaining the nets was not high - "$30,000 ... what's a person's life worth, I don't know", Mr Carse said.

The nets provided security for beach users with their children in the water.

On a personal level, Mr Carse knew sharks continued to be a threat after he was brushed by a 2m specimen at Aramoana on Monday.

St Clair Surf Life Saving Club manager and life member Graeme Newton said he was at school when the fatalities of the 1960s occurred and they still influenced how he operated at St Clair beach.

Avoiding the water at dusk and dawn was a good idea, he said.

"People a lot younger probably don't have the same phobia or apprehension when they're out there."

Dunedin surfer Jamie Gordon, 31, said the nets were not effective.

Being only 100m in length and 8m deep, sharks could swim under and around them.

He believed many of the sharks caught in the nets were swimming away from the beach.

- NZPA

White death

* The world's largest predatory fish, the great white can grow more than 7m in length and weigh as much as 2100kg.

* It is usually found in temperate offshore waters.