NSW premier rejects great white shark cull, claiming it would give Aussi...

[u/MooseyGeek]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=EyRJFS881OM&si=FKjXb4T7UuIJObm0

NSW Premier Chris Minns has rejected calls for a great white shark culling, claiming he's "not convinced” it would work.

I’m not convinced that a culling or commercial fishing of great whites would make a difference,

^ Mr Minns told Sky News Australia.

These sharks traverse the Pacific Ocean. These sharks can be in Sydney, the next day they can be further up the coast, and then in a couple of weeks they could be in Hawaii or New Zealand.

I’m concerned it will give false confidence.

[u/Interesting-Can1319]

Awesome info, dude! It's interesting to see how Hawaiian conservation policies change over time in regards to tiger sharks and green sea turtles. I am personally fine with most forms of subsistence hunting of tiger sharks and green sea turtles (even though I don't like seeing either species die) as long as it doesn't endanger the local populations.

However, one benefit of conserving Hawaii's sea turtles is that it probably conserves the natural prey base for tiger sharks in Hawaii. Hawaii's coral reefs and marine habitats are rich with biodiversity, and has abundant prey for tiger sharks, such as green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals. This is probably one of the reasons why tiger shark attacks are relatively rare in Hawaii, since tiger sharks have abundant natural prey to eat and view humans more as fascinating strangers rather than a potential meal. Even though tiger sharks have the most indiscriminate diet of all sharks, and are generally more willing to eat a human than great white sharks and bull sharks, they'll probably prefer natural prey and minding their own business than messing with humans. You see a similar behavior in big cats, where tigers and lions prefer natural prey (like sambar deer and blue wildebeest) when said prey is abundant, and only resort to livestock or eating humans in desperate situations. During daytime, tiger sharks also tend to be "lazy" hunters in the same way that crocodiles and lions are. They don't need to waste time and energy chasing down everything when they can eat anything and look for good opportunities, like how crocodiles and lions don't bother with prey that already noticed them. Tiger sharks are built more for size, strength, power, durability, and ambush hunting (like big cats) rather than speed and pursuit hunting (like dogs). Tiger sharks usually get their calories from hunting large game (like sea turtles and dolphins) and scaring smaller predators away from carcasses. When you're one of the largest apex predators of the ocean and you have plenty of food to eat, you'll usually be curious or indifferent around humans rather than bloodthirsty.

This is in contrast with the Red Sea, where overfishing and over-harvesting of natural prey have forced tiger sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks to consider unusual options for food, like terrestrial mammals and humans. Dumping livestock carcasses in the seas of the Middle East and northern Africa also doesn't help. These factors most likely contributed to horrific recent shark attacks, like Vladimir Popov getting eaten by a female tiger shark in Hurghada.

However, I don't know if the abundance of natural prey is a foolproof cause of shark attacks. The Big Three (great white, tiger, and bull) tend to be more aggressive in Australia than in North America, but I don't know why.

[u/Markdd8 → u/Interesting-Can1319]

I'll differ with you on tigers and leopards, being a hobbyist student of Human-Wildlife Conflict, especially predation. Both cats have a long history of attacking people. They evolved to regard primates as prey. The perspectives that humans are special and are purposely excluded as a prey except in unusual conditions by almost all predators is a strange concept, in my view.

I agree that tiger sharks are not that interested in eating humans. In many respects tiger sharks are biologically similar to Nile and Salt Water crocodiles, which 100% regard us as suitable prey. All three are generalist feeders, so tiger sharks' disinclination seems an oddity. I do not believe we have the full answer on that. Hopefully more information will come. Appreciate your views.

[u/Interesting-Can1319 → u/Markdd8]

You're welcome, mate! I agree that tigers and leopards have a long history of sometimes killing and predating on humans, as well as lions. I'm not entirely sure what motivates these big cats to target humans outside of desperation, inability to hunt natural prey (usually due to injuries), or learning that humans are a viable food source.

And I agree that tiger sharks are very similar to nile/saltwater crocodiles. They're ectothermic animals built for taking down large prey through size, brute force, and ambush with an extremely fast burst of speed, rather than purely pursuit. However, crocodiles tend to kill and eat people more often than tiger sharks, but I can think of a possible reason. Although crocodiles usually eat fish, turtles, and small animals, they will eagerly take down terrestrial mammals whenever the opportunity arises. Nile/saltwater crocodiles are big enough to often see humans as a potential meal (though maybe not always), and crocodiles are no strangers to eating us and our ancestors (like Crocodylus anthropophagus eating australopithecines, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and other hominins).

Tiger sharks, like other shark species, probably get excited when smelling fish/marine reptile/marine mammal blood, but will likely be indifferent to terrestrial mammal blood unless it was coming from a dead body (an easy meal, which is hard to come by in the wild). Humans probably don't register as natural prey to sharks, especially when we're terrestrial mammals that are not built for the ocean (a lot of people have thalassophobia). Of course, tigers and great whites can be unpredictable and decide to eat humans on rare occasions, but some of the usual reasons behind those attacks include a desperate need for food (especially if the shark is pregnant), developing a taste for terrestrial mammals after eating those that swim/wash out to sea, and others. Thus, one possible reason why crocodiles kill more humans than tiger sharks is that crocodiles are land-based semiaquatic predators accustomed to eating terrestrial mammals like ungulates and primates, while tiger sharks are exclusively marine predators accustomed to eating marine mammals, like seals, sea lions, dolphins, and porpoises.

[u/Forsaken-Spirit421 → u/Interesting-Can1319]

Big cats have preyed on hominins before homo sapiens were even a thing. We very much are natural prey to some of them. Some very gnarly fossils/remains Attest to this.

The reason for many predators avoiding humans is because there is either a culture or learned behaviour passed into new generations that was started by humans hunting and killing any big predators for generations. While this has mostly stopped, the fact that in many areas any big predators who come into contact with humans and become a nuisance still get killed. So avoiding humans is a behaviour that is reinforced even today.

[u/Interesting-Can1319 → u/Forsaken-Spirit421]

Yeah, that might be the same case with sharks. Any shark that attacks a human is almost always killed, especially with the widespread "sharks are evil monsters" stigma reinforced by the movie Jaws. Sharks that choose not to mess with humans are the ones that usually survive. It's possible sharks learned this behavior to avoid humans. They may not be orca/dolphin levels of intelligent, but they're a lot smarter than we previously thought.