What are we really protecting?

Thank you all for letting me speak here today. This is a hard month for me, around this time two years ago my husband died. Some of you may remember how it happened since it was all over the news at the time.

Most mornings now I go to the beach and walk along the sand by the water. Letting the ocean wash over my feet, soothing me and bringing me peace. Truth is, I do it because it makes me feel close to him again.

Robert loved the ocean, said he has ever since he was a kid. His family would practically live on the water, out fishing almost all day or surfing with his dad most afternoons. There were countless stories his parents and he would tell me. He especially had a great relationship with his father. A reason why I was excited for Robert to also become a dad. For us to have children, and live by the ocean.

It happened on a day like many others, Robert would leave for work at around five in the morning, long before I was up. I had just parked at work around ten, and then the phone rang. It was one of his colleagues, and it was the most devastating moment of my life.

As you know, Rob was a shark boat skipper, so he would take a vessel out onto the ocean, and check each drumline to see if a shark had been caught. Then he’d call in for it to be tagged and released further out.

“The world needs sharks”, that’s what Robert used to say.

He loved all marine life, but none as much as sharks. He would talk about how they’re the shepherds of the reefs, making sure the small fish around the coral don’t get eaten by their larger prey. “Sharks are the world’s most misunderstood creatures” was another one of his sayings. Always talking about how harmless they are and their importance for the ecosystem.

“They aren’t a threat to humans, we’re a threat to them.”

At least once a week he would come home upset or angry, complaining they found another dead shark in the nets. When he was hired on the program he believed it had a purpose: to save sharks as well as people. Although after a while he realized neither of those were true. One to six people a year die from shark bites around the world, and yet shark nets kill up to five sharks a week, just in New South Wales.

Robert made me passionate and I began defending sharks. Whether I was at work, with family, or friends. Every time a news report would come out with the headline ‘Shark Attack’, or someone would use those words around me, I would get really frustrated. They aren’t attacks, they’re bites. It was a negative shark encounter or interaction. This has got nothing to do with political correctness - it’s just factual. Most bites are minor, accidental with no intent for harm.

And yes, words matter.

We need to change the stigma around sharks and I’ll keep saying that long into the future - thanks to Robert.

Especially because of his unnecessary death, which would never have happened if it wasn’t for shark nets. It was estimated that Rob was trapped under the water for at least an hour. There were three shark sightings that day but not a single shark bite on my husband.

When Rob went down to check your shark net, it got tangled around his leg. No one was there to help him but he wouldn’t want me to fight just so that you put more people out there. This is much bigger than that. I would still defend sharks even if Robert was bitten because he would want me to, and because he’s right.

What happened to my husband is further proof that these shark nets don’t work. Not only do they kill thousands of marine life every year, but they have also killed a human. You must ask yourselves, what are we protecting?

I’m no marine biologist, no expert in the field of shark behaviour. To you all, I’m probably just some grieving widow. But even I know sharks don’t eat humans, we aren’t part of their diet. They know who we are and they’re definitely a lot more scared of us. We have the power to protect them and ourselves, we just need to know how to use it.

As much as Robert always felt at home on the sea, when it came to sharks he would always say, “It was their home long before it was ours.” He was so bloody wise.

Tonight, I hope that you can hear his wisdom. I hope that a legacy of loving the ocean and wanting to preserve it can replace the tragedy and sadness of his death. I hope that the way Rob lived will change your mind.

Thank you.