Hunting the big hunters
QUESTION Is it true that the controversial Australian cull of 2014 failed to catch any sharks?
THiS wasn’t a nationwide shark cull, but one implemented by the Western australian State government following the deaths of seven people on its stretch of coastline from 2010 to 2013.
The majority of these attacks were by great white sharks ( Carcharodon
carcharias), lured by increasing numbers of migrating humpback whales, and other species whose stocks have increased dramatically in recent times, from around just 600 in the Sixties to 40,000 in 2016.
The Environmental Protection authority (EPa) of Western australian implemented a cull using drum lines — floating barrels anchored to the sea bed with a baited hook on a separate line. Sharks over three metres long were killed with no regard to species; smaller sharks were released back to the wild. The policy was met with a nationwide public outcry.
drum lines were put in place for the summer/autumn 2014 season, from January to april. The first shark was killed on January 26, 2014, near dunsborough. a tiger shark ( Galeocerdo
cuvier), it had taken a baited drum line hook. it was discovered alive and was shot and killed.
images of the incident caused a media storm. adding to the controversy, the contractor responsible for the drum lines in the south-west originally mis-identified the shark as a bull shark, then later the state government claimed it to be a black tip reef shark.
on May 7, 2014, the Western australia government claimed success for its shark hazard mitigation programme with drum lines off Perth and south-west beaches catching 172 sharks. it was anything but — 95 per cent of sharks caught, and the 68 that were destroyed, were tiger sharks. Two shortfin mako sharks ( Isurus oxyrin
chus) were among the 82 that had died on the lines.
Tiger sharks may have been responsible for a single fatality in 1997, but were not considered a danger. Furthermore, they are a near-threatened species.
Crucially, no sharks caught were the target killer species, great whites.
in September 2014, the Western australian EPa recommended against the setting of drum lines and the cull was ended.
The Western australian government has retained the option to deploy drum lines under its ‘imminent threat’ policy where there is a possible threat to public safety.
This system has been used on a number of occasions. The first deployment followed a shark attack near Esperance in october 2014. The drum lines caught and killed two great white sharks.
The appearance of a large great white in Warnbro Sound in december prompted a further deployment, which did not result in a capture. drum lines were also set following a fatal shark attack near albany on december 30.
in June 2016, a drum line was set off Falcon Beach in Mandurah following a fatal attack on a local surfer. a 4.2m great white was caught.
a few days later a 60-year- old female diver was killed by a shark in Mindarie, north of Perth, and drum lines were set in the area. Tom Davies, Sydney, Australia.
QUESTION Was there a game on the basic Atari game console that was banned for its lewd content?
THOUGH it’s hard to believe, it was once thought that the atari 2600 videogame system, released in 1977, was the place to showcase sleazy adult videogames.
one company, Mystique, produced a series of such titles.
none was universally banned — but some probably should have been.
Mystique wrote in its promotional literature of the time: ‘ We at Mystique feel that it’s time for video games and their adult players to come out of the closet, away from the kids, and deal with
adult fantasies. ‘after all, grown-ups have been known to be imaginative and competitive, as well as have fantasies.’
To think that the rather basic atari 2600 — with its simple blocky graphics, more suited to games such as Pong (a basic tennis game), Space invaders, Pac Man and Pitfall! — could make games that were even remotely erotic now seems laughable.
Mystique’s debut game was the incredibly tasteless Custer’s revenge (1982), where a naked Custer comes back from the dead and imposes himself on various indian squaws.
Sold in a sealed package, its literature included the warning: ‘if the kids catch you and should ask, tell them Custer and the maiden are just dancing.’
The game provoked widespread protest — but this led only to excellent sales.
another game, a Knight on The Town, involved the player laying bricks across a dangerous moat so the knight could become intimate with a buxom damsel in distress.
other games were remarkably crude, including Beat ’Em and Eat ’Em! whose instructions are simply too rude to relay here.
other companies tried to get in on the act. X-Man was the only game produced by Universal Gamex. The player assumed the role of a nude, male character who had to negotiate a maze, protecting his private parts from a series of hazards: scissors, teeth, and crabs. The reward if completed was a virtual woman.
While not banned, this game was criticised by women’s groups and most retailers declined to carry it — though there were reportedly many ‘under-thecounter’ sales. Colin Rand, Luton, Beds.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.