Reeling in great white sharks from our surf beaches
By Paul Scott and Chad Watson
October 23, 2005
The Sun-Herald
Two thrill-seeking anglers have caught more than a dozen great white sharks by using surfboards to drop giant baited hooks just beyond the breakers.
The great whites have taken the bait - usually half a salmon - only 50 metres from the water's edge along Stockton Bight, north of Newcastle.
Kris "Mackerel" Macklin and Glen "Mullet" Connell, of Boat Harbour at Port Stephens, paddle out on their surfboards with the salmon and line tucked beneath their chests.
They throw the bloodied fish overboard then paddle quickly back to shore and wait for a strike in the middle of the aptly named Bight, a 30-kilometre stretch with popular surfing and bathing spots at either end (Stockton Beach to the south and Birubi in the north).
The pair have purpose-built a swivelling chair - complete with seatbelt and stubby holder - that fits onto the bullbar of a Toyota LandCruiser.
Sometimes they strap themselves into the seat and are driven back and forth along the shoreline in a bid to land the sharks; other times they just stand on the beach with their heavy-duty rods awaiting action.
"Most of the white pointers we have caught have weighed 80 to 120 kilograms, with the biggest around 200 kilograms," Mr Macklin said.
"The ones we have landed range from six foot [1.8 metres] to one that was a solid nine foot [2.7 metres]."
When The Sun-Herald accompanied the daring duo last week, their two baits were snapped up only minutes apart by white pointers.
It took a frantic 20 minutes for the thrashing sharks, each more than 2.5 metres long, to be hauled in, tagged and released into the shallows.
Mr Macklin and another mate, Dave Smith, also from Boat Harbour, steered them back through the shorebreak, with the former holding the dorsal and the other a side fin. The sharks seem quite docile on the beach but it is not unusual for them to snap and swivel menacingly as they are guided back to sea.
Like most fishermen, the men have tantalising tales of monstrous man-eaters that have got away but, unlike many anglers, they also have copious video and photographic evidence.
Mr Connell, 45, and Mr Macklin, 30, are members of the Port Stephens and Newcastle Game Fish Club.
They said they tagged the sharks because they wanted to help authorities learn more about the mysterious creatures.
Carcharodon carcharias (great whites) have been protected in NSW waters since 1996 and must be released if caught.
A NSW Fisheries spokesman said
the sharks would move on as soon as the water started getting warmer.
Newcastle and Hunter Heli Services chief pilot Steve Bazic said that in 20 years of flying over the area he had never seen so many great whites.
He said: "Last time I did a count there were 18 whites ranging from juveniles to some that were three to five metres and as big as Volkswagens."
From http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ree ... 98728.html
