LET’S ACT TO STOP A DISASTER
IS it time we thought of a new system to help the surfers and boaties out in the Seaway?
As a fisherman I am always so nervous cruising out of the Seaway when the sun is reflecting off the water that I may not spot a surfer who is playing “surf frogger” crossing the Seaway on the way to surf South Straddie.
I lower the speed limit and putt my way out some days as it can be difficult to spot some surfers, and a collision would have catastrophic results.
I’m hoping as a community it isn’t going to take a catastrophe for us to make a change.
A mate of mine who regularly surfs South Straddie sent me a photo he found on social media of a bull shark caught in the Seaway. He wanted to know if there were heaps of them out there or if this was a fluke.
Ian Banks, who dives the river bar almost daily, says it is not uncommon to see the sharks school like that at certain times of the year.
He says the sharks are very uninterested in us humans and they seem very docile.
In short, you can keep pad- dling the Seaway to South Straddie, you’re in little danger of being bitten by a shark if you avoid dusk and dawn.
But be aware the main danger of doing the paddle isn’t what is below the water, it is what is above.
It is unbelievably busy some days in the Seaway and it is only going to get busier.
If surfers aren’t aware I am making you aware now, some days you are difficult to spot.
I got thinking about how we can make it easier to spot surfers to prevent an accident.
My solution is flags. If we left high-visibility flags that could be strapped to the surfers’ chest sticking up a metre or so via a pole protruding from the back of the surfer it would make them easier to spot.
They could be left either side of the seaway for those either padding to or from South Straddie and simply left there as communal flags for us to use whenever we do the paddle.
That is just the idea I have come up with ... if anyone has a better one let me know.