The research/tracking they are doing is very valuable to the understanding of Great Whites, but is there not a more humane way to do it? And perhaps without the chum/alien abduction techniques?

And some more…

What would you do if you saw a shark attack someone … and then realised it was you? This is what happened to Troy Henri while surfing at Hawston, near Hermanus, on Saturday. Craig Jarvis spoke to him.

Most of us don’t think about it. We prefer to keep those dark thoughts of how we’d deal with a shark locked away somewhere deep and inaccessible, repressed by joyous visions of barrels and sunshine, of white sands and big smiles and stoke.

That is all sweet and fine and dandy until John Shark arrives unexpectedly while you’re surfing and decides he wants to say howzit. To you. Directly. Then you have to think about it. This man had time to think about it. He literally watched a shark attack him.

Troy Henri, originally from Isipingo, has been surfing for close on 40 years. He lives in the Cape now. He surfs Nine Miles and Garbage frequently, so he knows all about sharks. His conditioned response is to paddle in when you see a fin, as every surfer does, pretty much. However, he had a slightly different experience on Saturday afternoon at Hawston near Hermanus.

Guys have been surfing there for years. It gets quite good at times, but it is a fickle wave, and it has a sharky vibe to it. You know the feeling – the kelp looks ominous, and sometimes when you’re sitting out at the back surfing the lefts, it definitely feels like you’re in the thick of a serious buffet. On Saturday, the surf wasn’t even very good, but despite the average conditions, Troy and a mate paddled out, while the rest of his family hung out and started a braai at the bottom car park.

“The waves were closing out and I had been paddling for a few and pulling back, waiting for a good one. I was sitting out there, when the water around me went dark,” said Troy. “I thought it was a shadow from a cloud passing by the sun, so I remember looking up, but there were no clouds.”

Then he saw it. “I looked down and saw the profile of a big shark underneath me, and I realised what was happening, and started paddling towards the beach. The shark was inside of me, under me somewhere, but between me and the beach.”

It was about then that things started to get interesting. “As I was paddling, this tiny little fin appeared next to me. It just got bigger and bigger, as the dorsal fin started rising out of the water. It was to the right of me, cruising past me, going so slowly, heading out to sea. It was so close. At this stage I started getting really scared, you know, all these thoughts start going through your head. My 14-year-old boy was on the beach, and everything was happening so fast.”

The shark swam past, but then the nightmare started. “I checked the shark splash behind me, and do a u-turn, and I was thinking, ‘this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.’ It was like a dreamy thing, almost like an out-of-body experience as I could actually see a shark attack about to happen. To me. I was thinking “This shark is going to kill me now.”

The shark hit Troy hard from underneath. “It hit me so hard and so fast. It hit me on the left side; hit the board by my hip. I got flung up and rolled over, and the next thing the shark was on top of me. I had my arm wrapped around the tail of the shark. It was like we were hugging each other for a second. We got tangled up in the leash, and the next thing the shark was pulling me under water hard.”

It pulled me under until the leash snapped. I had swallowed so much water in the struggle, and water was rushing up my nose from being pulled under.”

Troy got sucked under the water, still attached to the board that was somehow entangled with the shark. “It pulled me under until the leash snapped. I had swallowed so much water in the struggle, and water was rushing up my nose from being pulled under.”

Troy surfaced. The shark was nowhere to be seen. Neither was his board.

“I was about 80 meters out, maybe more, and I started swimming to the shore without my board, just expecting the shark to hit any second. I swam some freestyle and then I swam backstroke, just to keep my eye out for when it was going to hit, to fight it off if I could. As I came towards the shore I saw something dark in the water but it was a rock, and I remember standing on it, looking out to sea, feeling a bit safer. Probably wouldn’t have made any difference whatsoever if it had come back, but for some reason I felt a bit secure on it.”

Troy continued swimming. “I was swimming regularly, not splashing and panicking. I tried to stand a few times, but I was still too deep, so just kept on swimming. It was only when I could stand on the sand did I feel safe again. I was totally numb, from the shock, but I was OK. A few little cuts and stuff. The strangest thing was walking back to my family without a board. ”

Troy was still alive. Shaken, in a bit of a state, but totally unharmed.“ I went for a surf the next day,” said Troy on his rehab process. “I just managed one wave before I came in. It felt strange.”

It was a strange, radical, emotional chain of events, and Troy fully understands that he totally got lucky, got a second chance. It took a day or two for it to sink in, for him to understand the big picture of what could have been.

“Like a miracle bru. Apart from a few scratches I was untouched.”

Its definitely safe to go back into the water at Fish Hoek beach after a new net to keep white sharks out of the swimming area was finally installed. Cape Town – It’s definitely safe to go back into the water at Fish Hoek beach after a new net to keep white sharks out of the swimming area was finally installed on Friday. The trial net, which encloses the space between the City of Cape Town law enforcement offices and Jagger’s walk and extends 300 metres out to sea, has been in the pipeline for months. It comes in response to concerns about recreational use of the beach with sharks in the bay, and the subsequent potential negative effects on local businesses.

Felicity Purchase, South Peninsula sub-council chairwoman, said the aim of the trial was to determine the efficacy of the net as a safety measure. But they would also conduct research to understand how the net would work in a variety of weather and sea conditions, and determine whether it posed an unacceptable risk to marine life. “If successful, the use of an exclusion net at Fish Hoek beach could become a permanent safety measure,” she said. But Purchase pointed out that whatever the outcome, the net would not replace the existing Shark Spotting Programme. She warned too that there could be changes to operating hours and conditions at the beach, without notice, during the course of the trial, which continues until January. “It is not possible to determine ahead of time which days the net will operate on, and for how long it will operate each day. “This decision will be made daily, based on weather and sea conditions.” Purchase said the netted area would be mainly for the use of swimmers. “No motorised or non-motorised watercraft will be allowed within the netted area. Inflatables will be permitted.” Body boards would be allowed within the netted area, but users may be asked to leave during peak periods. Purchase said it was unlikely the net would interfere with trek fishers.

The Western Australian government recently announced a $2 million plan to preemptively kill great white sharks off their coastline. In the past year, the territory has suffered five fatalities as a result of great white attacks.

“These new measures will not only help us to understand the behavior of sharks but also offer beachgoers greater protection and confidence as we head into summer,” said Western Australia’s Premier, Colin Barnett.

The decision to preemptively kill some great whites is a portion of a larger $6.8 million “shark mitigation” plan that would see the use of shark enclosure nets at some high-traffic beaches, increased tagging of sharks, further research into shark repellent, and the purchase of $500,000 of Jet Skis to give to local surf clubs to help spot sharks. The new shark-killing plan goes against current policy dictating that a shark can only be killed after they’ve attacked.

There was an outcry over the decision from Australians as many argued that the preemptive kill plan was a knee-jerk reaction to the rise in attacks recently. In response to the opposition’s outcry, Barnett told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that, “We will always put the lives and safety of beachgoers ahead of the shark. This is, after all, a fish—let’s keep it in perspective.”

WA opposition leader Mark McGowan said the decision is not only irrational, but it also undermines the federal government’s White Shark Recovery Plan, which calls for the protection of the shark.

In a statement from Sharon Livermore of the International Fund for Animal Welfare that appeared in The Australian, she argued that preemptively killing the ocean’s top apex predator could have direct consequences on the surrounding ecosystem. “WA’s decision is simply not the right response. The ocean is the shark’s habitat, and needlessly removing them from our oceans would affect the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem, which could be ecologically and economically devastating.”

SEA SHEPHERD CRIES FOUL OVER PLANNED SHARK CULL IN AUSTRALIA
Global Marine Conservation Non-profit Says

It’s Time for the Fear-Mongering to End

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — September 28, 2012 — In response to current reports that officials in Western Australia will be waging war on sharks beginning as early as this weekend by initiating a cull of any sharks swimming near beaches in the region, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the global marine conservation nonprofit, is crying foul. The shark cull comes in response to five deaths to surfers due to shark bites over the last year on Western Australia’s beaches. However, given all that is known about sharks, including their quickly dwindling numbers, the critical role they play in our oceans, and the small threat they actually pose to humans in the grand scheme of things, it is hard to fathom that the archaic concept of killing these animals for our “protection” still exists.

Officials plan to kill any sharks — including the protected and endangered white shark — swimming near beaches in Western Australia. At a cost of far more than the $6.35 million that the Australian government is investing in the program, it is absolutely shameful.

Make no mistake. Sea Shepherd wishes to express its heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families. But while these five tragic deaths evoke society’s primal fears, fueled by media hype, we, as a globally impacted community, need perspective.

In the last 215 years in Australia, only 18 shark-related fatalities have occurred — an average of one death every 12 years. Someone’s odds of dying from a shark bite are less than 1 in 264 million. In 2008, in Australia, one person died from a shark bite, 315 died from drowning and 694 died in car accidents.

“Before killing sharks, the Australian government must also consider their status,” says Sea Shepherd’s Director of Shark Campaigns, Julie Andersen. “The Australian government is exhibiting incredible ignorance. Sharks are in danger of extinction; up to 73 million are killed each year. Regionally, more than 90% of shark populations – including whites – have been utterly decimated. White sharks are protected nationally and internationally and the U.S. is even considering adding them to their endangered species act. Given the critical nature of their status, Australia is lucky to even have sharks in its waters,” she says.

Programs like the Shark Spotters in South Africa prove there are viable alternatives to the archaic practice of killing sharks with nets and drum lines. Other methods of harmless deterrents such as electrical current, alloys, and chemicals are also being developed.

The issue of shark culling is not new to Sea Shepherd, who has been fighting to bring an end to shark nets and other culling programs for decades. Our “remove the nets” (www.removethenets.com) campaign has been placing pressure on the government of South Africa for more than four years, rallying the support of thousands. Sea Shepherd also recently sued the government of Reunion in France and won — successfully ending the illegal shark cull called for in August in the Marine Reserve.

The days of killing animals out of fear are over. Australia — a country whose environmental policies, fueled by booming eco-tourism — should be setting precedence for the world. At a time when we are racing through our natural resources at unsustainable rates, destroying wild animals simply because we can or due to irrational fears fueled by a lack of knowledge, is no longer acceptable.

Without sharks, the oceans die. And as our founder and president Captain Paul Watson says, “If the oceans die, we die.” Sea Shepherd will not stand by quietly and allow the Australian government to destroy some of the oceans’ last remaining sharks in ignorance and arrogance. We forced the issue to become addressed in South Africa, we’ve stopped the shark cull in the La Reunion Marine Reserve and we’ll do the same in Western Australia.

A significant link between lunar phase and water temperatures and shark sightings has been shown in the latest research by the Shark Spotting programme, writes Spike / www.wavescape.co.za.

Sitting in the Empire Cafe overlooking the crumbling surf of Muizenberg Corner, we discuss sharks, the ocean and surfers. Alison Kock, the shark scientist from Shark Spotters, looks forward to her first surfing lesson immediately after our meeting. She’s keen to get in the water, although from where I sit with a few more years surfing experience, the sea looks murky. But beginners seldom worry about conditions. We’re talking sharks. That’s Alison’s language, and she’s fluent in it. She’s excited that a statistical model they have been working on has crunched some fascinating trends. The starting point was data recorded by their spotters at Muizenberg Corner, Fish Hoek and Saint James over almost a decade. This included name of spotter, time of the day, lunar phase, water temperature, cloud cover, tides, and details on wind and swell.

The most basic output of the model, and that recorded by the press this week, shows that June and July have the least shark sightings, and that by September they’re steadily increasing into summer, when activity is high. These are trends we have come to know. They’re a common part of the seasonal ebb and flow as the resident white sharks of False Bay move more inshore during summer. White sharks look for easy prey, and their movements are specific to that. False Bay white sharks are mostly juveniles and sub adults that are sexually immature. As Alison says, white sharks look for easy prey, and their movements are specific to that. False Bay white sharks are mostly juveniles and sub adults that are sexually immature.

The media has overlooked aspects of the survey that are much more significant than the known fact that more white sharks are seen in summer. One that jumps out like a breaching animal is water temperature. How’s this: according to the data recorded by the spotters, there are four times more chance of spotting a white shark in 18 degree water than there is in 14 degree water. It makes sense. Bait fish are more active in warm water. Another is lunar phase. Though slightly less significant, there is still a trend showing almost twice the chance of a sighting during a New Moon than a Full Moon. The speculation here is that bait fish are more active under cover of darkness, and therefore so are predators. The problem of course, Alison says, is to find a practical use for this information. Immediate steps are underway to place water temperature and lunar phase data on information boards at the beaches. The more knowledge and information, the better for people to make up their own minds. “But we also need to digest this information and think about it a bit more. We need to consider what needs to happen.” She already has some ideas, around how water users assess conditions. Alison urges surfers to look for shark cues when sussing out the surf. Not only should we be checking out the wind, the swell and tides, but let’s expand the ritual to include shark probability. In essence, surf forecasting with a bit of shark forecasting. Does the spot fall within a high shark area? Are there shark spotters there? What time of the year is it? What is the water temperature? What is the moon doing? Is there a lot of activity in the water, such as birds, bait fish, dolphins and seals? Are you near a river mouth? Is the water murky? It’s about probability of spotting a shark given certain conditions. If numerous ‘red flag’ signals converge, surfers need to make a call, just as you might if an onshore is blowing, or the surf is too big at the spot you’re checking out.

Shark sightings on the Cape Pensinsula are increasing. Like it or not, that is inevitable. The way we deal with it is up to us. Finger pointing and acrimony will not resolve a thing. Our challenge is to keep the balance between hype and risk, and taking calcuated risks to enjoy our passion when we feel the time is right. We need to get past the hype, but without losing respect for an apex predator – a tightrope balancing act. Science is inexact. Scientists are the first to admit it. They do not provide the answers. But they do arm us with information that is critical to our understanding, and if we approach the issues as a collective, as a community, this information is invaluable. “We are not trying to foster fear. For us it’s about giving people information they can use.” Oh and by the way, she stood up on her first wave. On the second, she rode all the way to the beach.

CHATHAM — Monday, when most people were relaxing, enjoying a Labor Day off from the daily grind, others were hard at work fulfilling their dreams — in this case, of sharks.

Garth Donovan, a house painter based in Needham, loves to make movies and has seven independent feature-length films and one short to his credit, many as director.

Bradley Louw, an offshore lobsterman, wants to have a successful business showcasing one of the Cape’s newest natural wonders, the great white shark.

Those two desires may seem an unlikely pairing, but Donovan is shooting a movie about a man confronting his fears and Louw wanted to try out his almost-new $10,000 shark cage.

For the sake of his film, Donovan has already searched for sharks off the Cape by dropping chum — a brew of fish parts — and then jumping in the water, paddleboarding at the mouth of Chatham Harbor and swimming from a research vessel to a seal haul-out to photograph a seal freshly killed by a great white attack.

He was willing to finance a day at sea filming great whites from Louw’s shark cage on the Chatham scalloper Three Graces.

“I think today went awesome. No one got hurt, we got the sharks, we got footage,” said Louw, 23, after spending five hours off Chatham. He said the team saw four great whites ranging from 14 to 17 feet long.

Cameras, of course, were everywhere, with a cameraman circling above in a plane, two filming from the deck of the scalloper and another on a chase boat. There also were several underwater cameras strapped to the cage.

Where are the sharks? Click to view details of recent great white shark sightings

Soon after the crew departed from the Chatham municipal fish pier in the early morning hours, the pilot of the spotter plane saw sharks before cameras or crew were even ready.

Louw said he was most scared when he jumped into the cage by himself to secure some buoys, knowing that a big shark was seen circling close to the cage by the spotter pilot. Although he’s originally from South Africa where shark cage tourism is a full-blown industry, Louw had never been in one before Monday morning.

He bought the cage — a big box of marine-grade aluminum bars that looks like portable jail cell — from a man in Montauk, N.Y., who also had a dream of diving on great whites.

“It was harder to do than he thought it would be,” Louw said.

It only seemed natural to Louw that, just like a local excursion industry grew up around the population of gray seals that’s exploded over the past 20 years, there would be plenty of people willing to pay to go nose-to-nose with the sharks.

He looked at Monday’s expedition as a chance to work out the bugs in the operation. There turned out to plenty. They learned the following: Don’t tow the cage to the sharks with divers inside (“I felt like a lobster in a trap being hauled to the surface”); wear scuba gear not snorkels; let the noon sun improve water visibility; and playing loud music underwater while banging on the cage to attract sharks basically does the opposite.

The latter tactic was used instead of chumming as is done in other countries.

State shark researcher Greg Skomal said chumming is highly controversial with some scientists worrying that the sharks could start associating humans with food. That’s an extremely dangerous association when public swimming beaches are just a few miles away.

The expedition was encouraged that the spotter plane was able to find sharks quickly and guide the boat there in time. All of the services for the day, such as the boat and the spotter plane, were donated.

But limited visibility from inside the cage proved a major drawback Monday, Louw said. Even though the sharks came within a few feet of the cage, neither Louw, fellow diver Shawn Vecchione, nor Donovan could see anything but murky shadows as visibility often shifted from a couple of feet to 15 or so. That seemed to improve as the sun rose higher in the sky.

Seeing sharks was not a problem for Justin Lynch, 29, who was filming from a small skiff and saw two big great whites circling underneath him, including one measuring 17 feet long and more than 3 feet wide.

Donovan is hoping people will relate to a human being feeling vulnerable.

“It’s a real documentary; there’s no safety net,” he said.

Louw is hoping that people will see his shark cage as safe and that some would be willing to pay him to enter the shark’s domain. Like Donovan, he is willing to risk his own capital, hoping to buy a boat this year capable of transporting and lowering the cage. He wants to return to South Africa over the winter to see how the professionals do it there.

“Here,” he said about the Cape, “we have this great opportunity.”

This comes after heated debate, both in Australia and SA, about the link between attacks and chumming, which is used to attract sharks to the boats.

Reacting to the ban yesterday, some local shark cage diving operators blasted the move, while a marine biologist said various studies had not proved a link between chumming and shark attacks.

Australian newspapers reported this week that West Australian Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said he did not want tourist activities set up that would attract sharks and change their normal behaviour.

Research done by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) at shark cage diving sites in South Australia had found that chumming kept sharks in an area for longer, but did not prove a link between chumming and attacks on humans.

Norman acknowledged that the study did not determine the long-term effects on shark behaviour, but said he would prefer not to take risks until more was known.

Shark cage diving has never been done along Australia’s west coast.

Brian McFarlane, operator and owner of Great White Shark Tours in Gansbaai, said the West Australian authorities were “overreacting”.

“There is definitely no point in banning diving. It has been proved over and over again that shark cage diving is not to the detriment of divers or people using the beaches.”

He said that while they used chumming to attract sharks to the boat, it had never been proved that this changed sharks’ behaviour.

“We do not reward sharks with food. People always want to blame something or someone, but the industry has been operating in Gansbaai for 18 years and there has never been an incident. Thousands of people surf and swim along our shores and the sharks are there as they have always been,” McFarlane said.

Another operator in Gansbaai, Wilfred Chivell, said: “Their decision is not a well-informed one. There is no link between chumming and attacks. I am very proud of the way we are handling the issue locally because these are incredible animals and accidents do happen. Sharks are in their natural habitat as they always have been. I don’t believe there is any change in shark behaviour; chumming has nothing to do with attacks.”

Alison Towner, a marine biologist for the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, said: “Cage diving sites in South Australia and SA hold the similarity that they are focused on a seal colony – a natural aggregation area for great white sharks.

“It is understandable that the Australian authorities are concerned with the high attack rate, but West Australia has never had cage diving operations and they’ve still had attacks. I think a more proactive approach would be to understand the movement of sharks properly by doing more research before making policy decisions.”

Towner, who has been researching shark movements for five years, said: “There is still no scientific link between the attacks and chumming. Sharks move around extensively and we need to have a better understanding of their movements.”

Veteran Cape Town surfer Paul Botha said: “Chumming is not the issue when it comes to diving because the operators are in areas where there is a huge aggregation of sharks.

“However, the jury is still out on whether shark cage diving affects shark behaviour because they are attracted by the chum and they come in close proximity to humans and later, when they come in shore where people are surfing and swimming, they may become more inquisitive and it might well change their behaviour.

“However, I don’t think chumming has anything to do with it.”

Alison Kock, a local scientist and research manager for Shark Spotters who conducted a study around the False Bay area similar to the CSIRO one, said local research did not find an increased risk to water users.

In SA in April, a heated chumming row erupted after the death of bodyboarder David Lilienfeld, 20, who was attacked by a great white shark while surfing at a popular surf break at Kogel Bay. – Cape Times

Sourced from : IOL NEWS / TheBombSurf.com ]]> http://stopsharkcagediving.com/blog/australia-leads-the-way-with-banning-shark-cage-diving/feed/ 0 http://stopsharkcagediving.com/blog/another-shark-attack-in-stilbaai/ http://stopsharkcagediving.com/blog/another-shark-attack-in-stilbaai/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2012 06:24:11 +0000 justin http://stopsharkcagediving.com/blog/?p=162 Continue reading →]]>

From Weekend Post (www.weekendpost.co.za):

Claremont surfer Paul Buckley was attacked by a shark on Monday July 7 while riding the waves in Jongensfontein in Stilbaai. He was rushed to a Mossel Bay hospital where a deep wound to his leg was stitched closed before he was discharged today (July 8).

According to NSRI station commander Rico Menezies, the attack happened at 11.15am off a beach frequented by surfers. He said until they examined the board for bite marks, they could not say what type of shark attacked Buckley or how big it was.

Local resident Pieter de Witt, known as Boeta, witnessed the attack from the patio of his parents house. He said he saw two surfers in the water and one began to thrash about wildly.

Boeta realised there was a problem and ran to the beach while his sister brought the car around. They saw Buckley paddle to the beach and ran to his aid when he called for help.

Boeta said it was clear that Buckley had been attacked by something and that his surfboard had a 20 to 25cm hole in it.

From the Eastern Province Herald (www.epherald.co.za)

A STILL Bay teenager is being hailed as a hero after he spotted a surfer being attacked by a shark and rushed to his aid.

Paul Buckley, of Claremont, Cape Town, was attacked by a shark while riding the waves at Jongensfontein in Still Bay, just south of the Garden Route, on Tuesday this week.

Grade 9 pupil Pieter “Boeta” de Witt, 14, who saw the attack from the patio of his parents‘ home, is now in line for a bravery award.

Still Bay NSRI station commander Rico Menezies said yesterday Buckley was attacked at 11.15am but the type and size of the shark were not known. “We are still trying to get hold of the board so we can examine the teeth marks before we determine that.”

De Wit said he saw two surfers in the water and that one began to thrash about. He realised there was a problem and ran to the beach while his sister, Wilmarie, brought their car around. “We saw the man paddle out of the water and we ran to him when he called for help. We could see his leg was so badly injured that it was clear something had attacked him.”

The surfboard had a 20cm to 25cm hole in it, he added.

The siblings rushed Buckley to a local doctor, who treated him for deep flesh and skin wounds on his left thigh. He was later transferred to a Mossel Bay hospital.

Buckley, still clearly shocked by the incident, said it was only thanks to God‘s grace that he had not suffered a fatal injury. He did not want any photographs taken while in hospital.

He said the shark appeared to him to have been about 2,5m long.

“Surfing is my sport and I‘ll paddle out again. Once you have the ocean in your blood, it‘s in your blood,” he said.

Hessequa Deputy Mayor Lorna Scott said De Witt would be given a bravery award for his role in helping Buckley.

Menezies said the sea conditions were favourable for a shark attack as the water was unclear and the waves were quite big.

Two whales were apparently in the area, he said, and the shark could have been drawn if they had a calf with them.

Shark attacks are rare in the Still Bay and Jongensfontein area.

The lack of traditional shark gathering sites off the state’s coast may encourage operators to feed the animals to attract them to cage dives, changing their behavior in a way that could pose risks to the public, Norman Moore, fisheries minister said in an e-mailed statement today. Such operations will be banned under rules now being drafted.

Western Australia had four fatal shark attacks in a six- month period from last September to last March, according to website sharkattackfile. The state is spending A$14 million ($14.3 million) over the next four years to reduce the risk of attacks, Moore said.

“I would prefer to take no risks,” he said in the statement. “The government is not willing to allow any ventures that may raise even greater public fears than already exist.”

While studies in South Australia state by Australia’s government scientific agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, weren’t clear about whether feeding great white sharks changed their behavior in the long term, that risk had to be set against economic benefits, he said.

No one had yet applied for a license to operate cage dives in Western Australia, Moore said.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Fickling in Sydney at dfickling@bloomberg.net