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American Morning

Unusual Amount of Shark Activity Off Australia's Beaches During Past Week

Aired March 19, 2002 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It is "Jaws" down under, only this is no movie and these jaws are not mechanical. There has been an unusual amount of shark activity off Australia's beaches during the past week. Hundreds of sharks -- some as long as 10 feet long -- feeding on schools of tuna and other fish, have forced surfers and swimmers on to shore. Yikes, look at that right there.

Our own ambassador in residence has a lot of experience swimming with the sharks in the diplomatic fish tank, so to speak. But it also turns out he has also had experience with the real thing, surfing near his hometown of Sydney, Australia, and that is where he joins us from this morning.

Good morning, Ambassador Butler. Nice for you to join us.

RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER UNITED NATIONS CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Anderson. I was surfing just a few hours ago. There you go.

COOPER: You're making us jealous. You look very tan and very rested. Any idea why these sharks were massing near Brisbane?

BUTLER: It's the time of the year, Anderson. Remember the climate in Australia is a reverse of the climate we have in North America. So we're coming to the end of summer just now, and it's typical that in March the sharks come in larger numbers, and partly because it's the breeding season. But it just seems to happen towards the end of March each year, what you see in that film clip.

COOPER: I also understand that last week there was a rather large great white -- great white shark spotted in the Sydney harbor. It apparently scared a couple boaters several times. Are shark sightings in Australia as big a deal as they are here?

BUTLER: No, they're not, Anderson. I grew up on the Pacific Coast of Australia, but all around the Australian coastline there are beaches. In fact, it's the world's longest coastline given that it is a large island. And if you stretch it out in one long stretch, it's very long. And there are beaches everywhere. This is a surf culture, and people are taught from the early age, you know, how to live and deal with sharks. To live in the environment in which they live.

I was one such person. I can never go swimming anywhere without, you know, having that stuff that I learned as a kid go through my mind about how to behave in the water, where there are likely to be sharks and where not and so on. There are regular shark attacks in Australia each year, two or three people lose their lives sometimes quite horribly. But on the whole, Australians take it that sharks are there and have learned to kind of live with them and become -- you know, they're not too hysterical about the existence of sharks and the attacks when they occur.

COOPER: It's interesting, you mentioned, you know, the large amount of coastline and stuff. When you actually look at the statistics, there are more shark attacks in the United States, even though it would seem that Australians probably spend more time in the water. Just some quick stats we're putting up, 70 to 100 attacks annually, five to 15 fatalities. That's worldwide. But in the year 2000, of the 38 -- there were 38 attacks in Florida, only seven attacks in all of Australia and three of them were fatal.

So a pretty big difference. Any sense of why there may be that difference?

BUTLER: Yeah, I'm not sure. It could be the kind of systems they have here in Australia for protecting beaches. It sounds weird, you know, given that we have such large and open beaches. But there is a system of meshing -- you know, that is nets that are put across the mouth of large beaches. There's a system of aerial surveillance, and lifeguards are trained to look out for sharks.

I don't know, I'm only guessing, Anderson. But I do know that there is a very highly developed system of watching for sharks here in Australia, and maybe that's one of the reasons why, you know, that we don't have as many attacks.

COOPER: Well it could also be that Australians are just so damn tough, but...

BUTLER: Well -- or our sharks are better fed. Listen, I spent a lifetime surfing. But in more recent years I learned to scuba dive. And, you know, I said earlier on that I always have a shark mentality in my mind when I go into the surf. Having learned to scuba dive, I've been in their environment down below the water and it's actually more comfortable. You know?

COOPER: I got to say, we have a picture of you as a young lad with a shark, actually.

BUTLER: You what?

COOPER: We have a picture of you as a young lad...

BUTLER: You what?

COOPER: ... with a shark. This is apparently -- tell us about this. This shark was caught off -- near your home when you were a child?

BUTLER: At Bondai (ph) Beach. I remember that picture. That was -- you know, I was like nine or 10 years of age, something like that. That was one big shark.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Ambassador Butler, this...

BUTLER: Do you have that picture?

CAFFERTY: ... this is Jack Cafferty. I'm looking at the picture along with Anderson. You talked about the training they give kids about how to behave in the water with sharks.

BUTLER: Right.

CAFFERTY: Would rule one be if there are sharks in the water get out, perhaps?

BUTLER: Well, I said we have a system of surveillance which tells us when there are sharks nearby. Actually, on main beaches there's a siren that gets sounded -- the shark alarm, and people leave the water. But we are also taught when to swim, when not to swim.

And, you know, there's a -- as far as surf beaches are concerned, there's a pretty clear cut fact, which is sharks don't come within the wave line. That is where the waves become white water and foamy. Once the waves have broken, you won't get sharks inside there. So if you want to avoid sharks, you don't go out beyond the wave line.

COOPER: Ambassador Butler, I just want to quickly point out to the audience that in the picture we're showing, the young lad in the swim trunks on the right-hand side of the screen is you. And this was a 14-foot tiger shark that apparently the fisherman fought for 80 minutes before it was landed at Bondai Beach.

BUTLER: Right.

COOPER: Hundreds-the thing I have says, "Hundreds lined the rocks as Ben (ph) Butler to watch the monster struggle. Many women on the rocks screamed when one lunge by the shark almost dragged Jack Platt (ph) into the water. Platt recovered his balance with a wide- grinned wave to the crowd." I think those women screaming actually may have actually been you.

BUTLER: That's amazing you have that picture. There you go.

COOPER: Well, you know, CNN has worldwide capabilities. Ambassador Richard Butler, thanks for joining us this morning and filling us in.

BUTLER: OK. Good to talk with you.

COOPER: All right. Go back to the beach now -- Jack.

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