I am saddened that you have decided to perpetuate this story. Sharks are natural predators of the ocean and so it is certainly not unusual for a shark to attack another shark that has been caught on a drumline. The trapped shark would have been injured and distressed therefore making the same signals as a sharks prey would. The shark that was caught was by no means a fully grown great white and the 'monster' shark that everyone is talking about is the average size for a great white shark. To compare this animal to a fictional creature that started the negative reactions towards sharks in the first place is very backward, offensive and purely designed to cause fear in people. Yes this shark is a cannibal because thats was sharks are - you dont find too many vegetarian sharks in the world!
I for one cant say that i know anyone who is terrorised by this and it certainly hasnt stopped me going in the water.
Why are we now trying to spread terror by sensationalising a story about a shark having a meal? Is there really any need for it?
Your stories to date have been very informative and always contained beautiful photos. I am very disappointed and saddened that you have decided to run with this story - it must be a very quiet news week for you.

Rowena Mynott
Symbiont Ecology Group.

Dear Rowena, first of all I would like to thank you for having decided to spend your time to express your criticism. Criticisms are always welcome and help me doing a better job. Moreover, I understand from your words that you're a long-time reader of SeaWayBLOG and I hope you'll continue also after this post ;)
However I would like to clarify some things:
I'm not a shark expert but for what I know (and I have checked many sources) 6 meters is absolutely not an "average" size for a white shark. Wikipedia states: "A typical adult great white shark measures 4–4.8 metres (13–16 ft)", LifeGlobe: "These mammoths average 4-5 meters in length" and Sciencemag.org adds:"The largest white shark reliably measured was a 21-foot (6.4-meter) individual from Cuba". Therefore we can easily say that the mysterious predator that left its bites on the poor entangled shark should have been a pretty rare huge individual and absolutely not an "average" one! I've compared it to the movie's shark just to give to my readers an idea of the real size of this wonderful beast because many times simple numbers don't works very well. I really didn't intend to say that in the waters of Australia there's a terrible man-eating creature like the one of "Jaws" just waiting to devour surfers (and I'm sorry if this is the impression that someone has received from my post).
However, aside from clarifications, please believe me that I wouldn't like to "cause fear in people" at all (and again I'm sorry if this has occurred)! I've just found a really impressive picture (I've never seen a shark almost cut in two pieces by enormous bites and I see tons of pictures everyday) and I thought it would be interesting enough for the readers as it has been for me. Of course "you dont find too many vegetarian sharks in the world!" but one thing is "carnivorous", the opposit of vegetarian, and another is "cannibal"! However I haven't reported that cannibalism in white shark is exceptional (as many other media did) because instead it has been observed several times.
In short I haven't said that something really exceptional has happened, least of all that people should be terrorized about that. I've just said that people is terrorized (because this is what media reported) and that authorities warned to stay out of the water (because this is what happened). Please don't think that I'm one of these people that thinks that sharks are bad just because they are predators or because very rarely they attack humans, I hope to be a little bit more intelligent than this. I'm a nature lover and I know how nature works. In the pictures of this posts I don't see something to terrorize people but the amazing display of nature's power and the beauty of their creatures.
I hope that these words could help you to understand better my point now.
Thanks again.
Guido

Thanks for your reply Guido. I appreciate that you took the time to write such a lengthly reply to my post.
Just to clarify and give you a little understanding of why i felt the need to leave a post let me give you a little background on myself. I live and work as a marine biologist in the area that this happened. I have worked with sharks for many years now and continue to work, research and dive amongst them.
I see through my work constantly that there is a great fear in people when sharks are concerned and have witnessed first hand peoples reactions to such fear - this usually ends up in injuries and death to an animal that was purely doing its thing in its own environment. The reason this smaller shark was eaten was at the end of the day down to human fear - drumlines. If the drumlines were not there the shark would be alive swimming free and there would be no scare mongering stories and no need for me to be writing this. I have been sent this story from various media sources now and each time it is the same, the same words used and the same gist of the story, all regarding 'terror' and 'monsters' so you can understand my frustration. Just so you know, i have expressed my opinion on these other pages where this article has appeared too.
I will agree with you that perhaps 'average' was not quite the correct word for me to use when describing the larger shark - i was mearly trying to express that 6m is certainly not an unusual size for a great white - it is not uncommon to see them of that size. I have been in the water off the coast here with a 6m great white. There have been reports of great whites of up to 9m long.

As a professional photojournalist myself i know that the words we write carry great weight and even if we dont write these things intentionally, we really have to be critical of our own work and see how our words my be taken. Even though you may not have said as such that there was a man eating monster in the waters for example, it is certainly implied. As a journalist i urge you not to just follow the world media but to forge out your own stories which is the essence of a great story - talk to the people involved before you write something because i can assure you that we are not scared.

I will continue to read Seaway blog, and as i said in my previous post we have enjoyed your work so far.
If you need any clarification on stories from down under - especially when it comes to our marine life - please dont hesitate to get in touch with me, ill let you know what is really going on down here! :-)

Thanks
Rowena

Dear Rowena, I'm sure that after this exchange of very long posts, the both of us now understand each other pretty well. Believe me when I tell you that I really would like "to forge out my own stories which is the essence of a great story - talk to the people involved before I write something" but the truth is that SeaWayBLOG is just a blog, and it's not my job, I'm a photographer, therefore as you can imagine I simply don't have enough time and resources to do what you say, even though I really really would like (maybe on day this blog will become may main job.. you never know ;) ).
I really appreciate your offer and for sure I'll contact you next time! I re-aunch: feel free to write me whenever you want, if you have good pictures or stories that you want me to publish, I'll do it. If you want to write a guest post on this blog on any issue (related to water of course) I'll be more than happy to post it here with your name and credit. I'm sure that doing your job, and being such a nature lover you are full of things to say (the story of this shark is just the perfect example). Please consider SeaWayBLOG, if you like, your own megaphone!
Ciao
Guido

I will not approve on it. I think precise post. Especially the title attracted me to read the intact story.

I am not a long time SeaWay Reader and will not be. Just seeing how you are trying to spread fear about sharks is an immediate turn off. Perhaps next time you might try to educate your readers about how sharks are not to be feared in addition to reporting the facts.

Perhaps next time you might try to read the blog before decide, thus you would have known that I've never educated to fear the sharks and i'll never do it

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When seeing the comment by the person saying they will not read your blog because of you "spreading fear" about sharks I'm sorry. If they read the comments, lengthy ones, they would have known otherwise specifically. It's a shame that people react so physically to their first reaction when it would be impossible for us all to say things the same way.

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Among shark fisherman, it has LONG been understood that the best bait for large sharks is another shark, fortunately, that practice has all but disappeared among the majority of shark fisherman (most that I know now practice catch, tag, and release now only keeping those that will not revive).

It is very likely that if this shark was in distress, another great white could have taken a bite out of it, but there is also the possibility of it having been a killer whale as well, which do frequent the waters around Australia since no one actually saw the attack on the entangled shark. And there has been documented evidence of a killer whale attacking a great white of equal size and winning.

I was just passing by and saw the calm intellectual conversation between Guido and Rowena and I really love it! Respect from Hong Kong.