20 Reunion Island Sharks To Be Killed After Attacks

Killing sharks is not cool! It is not fuckin cool.
I will say it again and again....

IT'S NOT OUR OCEAN, IT'S THEIRS

im all caps today :) sheesh

That ought to teach them! :-\

two attacks in the lineup one week apart, one fatal and another where the vic 'only' lost a foot and a hand - that's too damn sharky. Let them fish it. Kind of like Yosemite bears - right animal, wrong place.

Shark attacks on surfers on Reunion Islands: 6 in 2011 of which 2 were fatal, 2 in 2012 of which 1 was fatal. The first of the last two attacks killed Alexandre Rassiga, a 22-year-old surfer at a spot, Trois Bassins, that was reputed to be the safest on the island. Surfing is the main occupation for a large number of kids and adults on the island so it's pretty understandable that families are wanting to do something about a situation that is evidently unusual. Sharks have always been a strong presence there and nobody's ever denied their place but this situation is unusual and probably caused by changes in local circumstances, as explained in the following article. Surfers and local population are also asking (besides the immediate fishing of some of the sharks) for a re-thinking of the natural reserve boundaries that would place it outside of surfing and bathing areas as they feel the increase in fish and wildlife population there has attracted sharks. They are also asking that drum-lines be placed near surf spots as is the case at many spots in Australia. I'm not so sure whether our community would react any differently if the same thing were to happen here, so I'd say it's probably best to withhold judgment.

Here's the AFP article:

http://observers.france24.com/content/20120808-france-indian-ocean-reuni...

So kill all the sharks? what if there is a breeding ground nearby, vital to that sharks existence and survival? we know so little about the fish...where they go, where they breed, how long they live....and the solution is to kill them all?
and then what? more breed...and kill them all?
just keep killing them?

while it is a tragedy that people have perished, how many sharks have been killed by humans?

I hear you Unfocused, I'm just not sure how I'd react if I was a Reunion surfer, so I don't think it's fair to necessarily cast a stone, nor are they saying 'kill'em all"... I grew up surfing in an area (the Basque Country) where shark attacks were never an issue and it was a serious adjustment for me to go live and surf in an area (the Oregon coast) where I had to put myself ###### of the food chain, somewhere between the salmon and the harbor seal. After spending the first few weeks paddling with my legs up, I finally accepted the fact that I couldn't do anything about the situation so I might as well learn to accept it and actually enjoy it, which I did. It was a humbling and enriching experience for me, to be put in my place, so to speak, as most humans nowadays take it for granted that they absolutely dominate all ecosystems.

However, great whites are much less aggressive and their behavior toward humans somewhat more familiar than that of bull and tiger sharks, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to adjust to a situation like the current one on Reunion Island with the same degree of philosophy.

An interesting statistic I read in the same Reunion newspaper where those videos came from: approximately 100 humans lose their life annually due to jellyfish stings versus 10 from shark attacks.

kill em all

Fair enough Waggy.
Where'd you surf in Oregon? I lived in Washington for a few years after high school to pursue adventure in snowboarding. Surfed Neah Bay, The peninsula, Vancouver Island, Westport (of course) and even all the way down the end of the strait on Widbey Island, which, given the exact stroke of luck and miraculous aligning of the Planets, actually got really fuckin good. But Holy S$#%#! Man! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr......that shit was cold-
bracking!
Very interesting fact about Jellyfish, too. Thanks for the discussion. Reserving judgement is a valuable lesson, as well.

Wow that brings back some memories, I did live in Seattle too, in 90, 91. I got skunked a couple of times at Widbey, I think we attempted to surf it at knee high, amazing that you got it so good, that's definitely something to boast about... I surfed Neah Bay (the dump) and some out of the way reefs on the west-facing side of that quite a few times, also the many lefts down the straight. Westport was also great when it was on. I wish I'd surfed the straight on the Canadian side... I hated the 4 to 5-hour drive to get to the surf though, being a surfer in Seattle was a bit of a pain, but I managed to surf just about every weekend... I spent many years in Oregon, surfed the northern part of that coast and its one famously restricted spot, that I ended up being tolerated at for many years : )

I know the restricted spot you speak of ;) ....and yes, the many lefts along the Strait. Widney was 90% skunk.
Three years was all i could take...300+ days of rain and hours from surf will make a body insane

I can sympathize with the RI surfer's plight. Shark thoughts and constant glances over the shoulder aren't exactly conducive to a fun surf session...and I sure do understand that it's lousy for the local economy. But trivalizing shark extermination with an analogy of a shark problem to Yosemite bear relocation is off the mark...because at least we share the same atmosphere, the air, and terra firma with the bears. We live in the same eco environment, the same "world". Obviously the ocean is not our world, we weren't built right to exist there, it is the fishes and shark's world...might as well be Mars. To kill them in their own house because we want to play in that house, and because they've now suddenly become pesky...does not add up, no matter how you rationalize it.

That's real turd. That's real-

If you read Jeremy Flores' interview on this site, it seems that Reunion locals believe that the increase in bull and tiger shark presence is caused by humans in the first place. Wouldn't it be reasonable to think that humans can try to take reverse steps to restore things to the way they were? Reunion Island is a fairly isolated spot in the Indian Ocean so it is quite possible that some adjustments (re-locating fisheries, moving marine reserve boundaries, helping restore the reef shark population) would help bring the shark-attack risk, which they've always assumed, to a more reasonable level. Or is this all a plot to keep French surfers out of the top 30? (insert laugh)

I'm totally with you there spamboy.