Sharks may be the furthest thing from a European surfer’s mind – we have our own apex predator to worry about here, in the form of a sewage overflow pipe.
Following a fatal attack in Sydney, the first off one of the city’s beaches in 89-years, Nick Carroll and Hannah Anderson, from Surfing World, Australia’s longest-running surf publication – decided to create Shark Country, a short film about the growing attack rate.
Shark Country hones in on Elliston, South Australia, where this surf zone has had to live with a shark fatality rate ‘that’s higher than the road toll.’ This 20-minute tack-sharp documentary hones in on gut-punching interviews from shark attack survivors, powerful prose, the surfing that goes with the region and a peeled-back look at a beleaguered 300-or-so strong community.
After watching the movie (which you can do above), I spoke with both Hannah and then Nick about the process and the whys of creating the film and how a special edition of the mag transcended into video production. Here’s Nick with the skinny.
Yes, very much a movie about sharks, but also one of surfing, of human interaction of the delicate balance of nature and being in-step. Photo: Screen grab from Shark Country.
Nick Carroll
“We started thinking about this mag (and film) late last year. It was triggered by a horrendous incident, a full on predatory attack by a white shark at Dee Why beach on Sydney’s northside. The victim was a very well known local surfer, Mercury Psillakis. The shark; a young adult white maybe 3.5 metres long, although length is a dull measurement for these animals. It was the first fatal shark attack off a Sydney surf beach in 89 years, ever since shark meshing protection began back in 1937/38. Also the first ever on a surfer.
“I guess that attack crossed a line for us. Australian surfers and sharks have been doing this weird dance for many years now. Occasionally, it’s flared into a kind of battle. But this century has been really heavy. Nearly 300 attacks in Australian waters, 43% of them on surfers and a lot of them fatal. While there’s a lot of money being spent on various kinds of mitigation, it doesn’t seem to change anything in terms of attack numbers. In Elliston, where we made the film, there’s no mitigation at all, and the surf community has had to live with a shark fatality rate that’s higher than the road toll.
“It does feel like we’re just being left to figure this out for ourselves, and certainly to advocate for better protection. We thought the best way we can do this is to try to capture the human experience of surfers around the nation.
“While we were making the film and the mag, some really terrible and very public attacks occurred. A fatal, and a near fatal, double attack on the mid north coast on a couple of van-life travellers. Four bull shark attacks in two days in Sydney in late summer, including a fatality (a 12-year-old kid). Two fatal white shark attacks on spearos in WA in a month. Now, just on the weekend, a white shark attack on a swimmer at Coogee beach in the middle of the busiest piece of coast in the nation, she lost a limb but is super lucky to be alive.
“A kind of culture war has erupted around the issue along the tedious old lines of hating nature or loving it. ‘Kill ‘em all!’ or ‘It’s their domain!’ We’re not fans of this nonsense, it seems pretty lame compared with the lived experience of surfers around the nation. Everyone has shark stories now.
“But being killed by a wild animal several times your size, it’s not really what you get into surfing for.”
