I was chatting to a surfer the other day, and he was telling me that on six or seven occasions he has been out beyond the break when the shark siren has sounded.

He usually beats a hasty retreat back to the beach, but other surfers simply chalk it up as an occupational hazard and carry on as normal.

Well, whatever camp you fall into, you may not be hearing that siren as often as you have in the past. Here’s BD Live:

There are as few as 353 great white sharks left on our coastline.

This is according to research conducted since 2009 by Stellenbosch University (SU) researchers and shark conservationist Michael “Shark Man” Rutzen‚ which is said to be the “most comprehensive field study to date of the population numbers of great white sharks along the South African coastline”.

“New research from SU shows that the South African white shark population is in double jeopardy‚” researchers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Researchers are so alarmed by these falling numbers that they have titled the statement “SA’s great white sharks heading for extinction”, and say the very survival of the apex predator is now under threat.

The researchers said that the “magnificent great white shark” faces “double jeopardy” as “not only do they have the lowest genetic diversity of all white shark populations worldwide‚ there are also only between 353 and 522 individuals left”.

I would imagine the sentiment for most of us, surfers or not, would be similar – I don’t want to encounter a great white when I’m in the water, but our coastlines are certainly worse off without their presence.

All those shark-cage diving operators must be rather worried right now, too, although they’ve been suffering for a while already (HERE).

[source:bdlive]