Kakadu Crocodile Attack

You will not be popular on this site for telling the truth and stating facts.

In the 60's there was good money to be made selling croc skins. then they became protected. Then came the farms and still good money to be made.
If culling allowed by hunters who then sold the skins, the farms would be most upset and demand gov protection for their industry.

PeterH

A matter of time with the crazy idea of swimming a fish in croc country from the boat before you release it . Easy target for a croc with your arms in the water.

The first hurdle to cross is the notion that Crocodiles are endangered.....they are not..plainly.

So what justification is there for the complete protection of them.

This complete protection has alloowed the number to increase out of proportion with the natural balance......for 20 000 years before white settlement the local black fellas would have hunted crocodiles and feasted on their eggs.

You think the men of the tribe would have tolerated a crock near them, that was endangering their women & kids.....no way....they would have gone after it and either driven it away or killed it and eaten it.

Those black fellas are now under represented in the environment....even if they where allowed, there are not enough of em to keep the crock numbers down.

So we have an unnatural sutuation that has allowed crocks to thrive out of proportion.


As far as this whole culling wont work thing........there will always be those saying this or that wont work.


These scientists can't have it both ways...... the same scientists will tell us that hunting/ fishing pressure can endanger a spicies....then they turn arround and tell us that hunting and fishing pressure can not controll numbers.

Its not rocket science.....if you start shooting crocks that will restore their fear of man, and if you shoot the big ones that will reduce the risk considerably...if you shoot plenty ( there are plenty) that will reduce the population and make things safer for man.

While crocks have a small brain they are far from stupid.....if you shoot or trap any crock that comes into a particular area frequented by man......crocks will recognise this and tend to steer clear.

This whole mamby pamby politically correct pseudo scientific approch is endangering people.

Are crocodiles more important than people........seriously...this IS the question.

It is as simpe as shooting or trapping anything that come close to areas frequented by humans.....relocating does not work


As with most of these environmental issues....there is a great deal of difference between the facts and the emotions


chers

Fist let me say commiseration's to the family.
As someone who has lived in the NT and worked taking tours on the Mary River and at Mardugal billabong which is on the same system as the attack. IMO it was only a matter of time before we saw increased levels of interaction, increased numbers of people and animals whose size, i agree with the comments previously posted have grown in size. To compare the numbers and the animals behaviour to what was happening in the sixties and the seventies is impossible as they were rarely seen then being hunted almost completely out of a lot of areas.
Going onto one of the river systems you are taking risks, there are large crocs nearby, as i said I lived and worked there for a while and had a few close calls, and i was very croc aware.
The animals that are creating a lot of problems at the moment are not afraid of humans at all, they have had not adverse interactions with them, so you are just another animal they will deal with, not a predator actively hunting them. Tom Cole documented an interesting experience when he was hunting crocodiles in his book "Hell West and Crooked" where after starting to shoot crocs in a billabong he came back to find that three of the animals had started to walk out to escape what was happening which to me shows understanding that they were being hunted and were no longer safe in that billabong.
Having said that i don't think culling numbers will work for a couple of reasons one people will never be allowed to cull them to a level where there will be none there, so there will always be a risk.
Large animals while they appear to be the ones that will cause the most worry are usually more wary of humans and less likely to want to interact, (unless you are being very incautious, or it is breeding season when they become very territorial).
As with most of nature it does reach a balance, so numbers will plateau but larger animals will be the norm rather than the exception like in the eighties and early nineties.

We had couple of excursions on Yellow waters, at Cooinda, on 2 different visits to Kakadu.

Plenty of crocs there, and many are quite oblivious to humans and their boats. We saw some that were on the bank, and we would have been within 5 metres of them, and they didn't give a stuff. The little bloke below tolerated us within 3 metres, before he casually slide back into the water.



When I worked in the Kimberley in late '60's/early '70's, I saw 1 saltie in 6 years, even though I spent that time on the Victoria, East & West Baines and Keep Rivers. They'd been shot out alright, but no one, with even half a brain, ever went swimming where they were known to be.

No word of how this bloke was taken that I'm aware of yet, but the suggestion that he was "swimming" a barra is quite possible. Talking to a bloke the other day and he wasn't keen on some of the "tea-pot" sized dinghys that blokes use, in croc country.

Bob.

In the 1960's, crocodiles were hunted as often as possible. Crocs were fearful of Man. Nearly everyone had an ex-military .303 when they went out on the Northern rivers and billabongs - and if a croc head appeared, it always got a few rounds loosed off at it.

Forward to 2014, and crocs have been protected for over 30 yrs, and they no longer fear Man. In addition, the numbers of both crocs and Man have increased by large amounts.
As a result, crocs only see us as another meal - and an increasingly plentiful one at that.

Crocs will need to be culled where the increasing numbers of population in croc areas result in increased amounts of croc attacks. The more people get taken, the louder the cry to do something about the "croc problem".

This info has been taken from the NT News Facebook page.

CROC ATTACK: Police say they have had no luck after searching through the night for a man who was taken by a crocodile while on a boat in front of shocked family members at the South Alligator River yesterday afternoon. Jabiru Police, Gunbalanya Police, officers from the Water Police section and Park Rangers are continuing to search for the man and the crocodile at the site of the attack. The initial police report stated the man to be 52 years old; this has been corrected to 62

LIST OF CROC ATTACKS

JANUARY 26, 2014: A 12-year-old boy goes missing after he was taken by a crocodile while swimming behind Mudginberri outstation about 20km west of Jabiru. Another boy, 15, was bitten on the arm but escaped before the croc turned on the other boy in front of friends.

AUGUST 24, 2013: A crocodile killed a 26-year-old man while swimming in the Mary River near the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, about halfway between Darwin and Kakadu National Park.

DECEMBER 1, 2012: A 4m crocodile killed a nine-year-old boy who was swimming with friends at a Territory beach at Port Bradshaw near Dhania outstation, 100km south of Nhulunbuy.

NOVEMBER 16, 2012: A 3m crocodile killed a seven-year-old girl who was swimming at a waterhole at Gumarrirnbang outstation about 110km southwest of Maningrida.

FEBRUARY 20, 2011: A crocodile killed a 14-year-old boy playing in a creek with his brothers in Milingimbi 450km east of Darwin.

APRIL 2009: Father-of-two Keith Parry, 20, was killed by a 4m croc while trying to swim across the Daly River, south of Darwin.

MARCH 2009: 11-year-old Briony Goodsell was taken at Black Jungle Swamp at Lambells Lagoon in Darwin’s rural area while swimming with her sister and two friends.

JULY 2006: A 5m crocodile killed an eight-year-old girl as she fished with her family on the Blythe River.

SEPTEMBER 2005: Darwin man Russell Butel, 55, was killed off the Cobourg Peninsula, while diving with a mate in Trepang Bay.

SEPTEMBER 2005: A 4m croc killed Russell Harris, 37, while he snorkelled off Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

DECEMBER 2003: A 4m croc killed Brett Mann, 22, while he cleaned his quad bike in the Finniss River, 100km south of Darwin. His two friends spent 22 hours up a tree waiting to be rescued while the croc stalked them below.

OCTOBER 22, 2002: Isabel von Jordan, a 24-year-old student from Germany, was killed by a 5m saltwater crocodile in Kakadu National Park’s Sandy Creek billabong while swimming with a group of tourists.

DECEMBER 23, 1998: Peter Munkara, 34, an artist from Melville Island, was found near the island’s Paru boat ramp with crocodile bite marks on his body.

AUGUST 7, 1998: The body of a man in his 20s was found in the Roper River, 500km southeast of Darwin, believed to be a victim of a croc attack.

DECEMBER 13, 1997: A man was killed trying to swim across the Daly River, 230km south of Darwin.

MAY 11, 1990: Albert Juzelionas, 43, a Jabiru Telecom worker, was killed while swimming off Groote Eylandt.

OCTOBER 1988: Alex Bururru, 25, of Maningrida, was killed in Cato River near Nhulunbuy, NT.

MARCH 17, 1987: Kerry McLoughlin, 40, a Jabiru storeman, was decapitated by a 5.1m crocodile while wading at Cahills Crossing on the East Alligator River in Kakadu. He threw a beer can at its head to try to escape.

EVERYONE of them took place in well known crocodile waters. Exception was probably in March 2009 (young Briony)..however that was posted as crocs had been seen in area. Russell Butel , an acquaintance, was diving in waters frequented by crocs. He knew the risks, but was a tropical fish collector. Don't blame a wild animal for doing what is natural. Sad events, all of them, but nearly everyone preventable.

We're talking about a reptile that survived the extinction of the dinousaurs. Thriving in a protected environment. When they are pulling people out of a boat they are killers just like the murderers we put in jail, they are pushing further south now because they are running out of room. I spent 3 days in the Glyde River NT on a boat, there were literally thousands of them in that river alone. More lives will be lost, attacks are on a sharp rise due to the population. We cull Kangaroos but not crocodiles, yet one is a man eater. Time to look at it again I reckon.

If the greenies and environmentalists insist on not killing them and the general opinion is that they have lost their fear of us then whats wrong with shooting the crap out of any one that raises its head in certain areas using high powered bean bags like used in riot control,,, it might just shock and frighten crap out of them enough to instill that fear of man again over time.

Just a thought

His remains have been found, 2 crocs feeding on him I am told, both crocs have now been shot. The cycle of croc eats man and then gets shot is a reactive one. It won't change a thing and they will continue to attack as they now have no fear of man.

If the greenies are opposed to crocodile management strategies to control numbers then I guess we could drop a few hundred salties into Sydney Harbour to alleviate the numbers here in the NT.

Latest news report I saw says he was washing a bucket over the side. I hope that is not the real story. Having lost several fish at the side of the boat to these animals, leaning over the side making splashes is asking for trouble. These animals are opportunists and will take those opportunities. Being safe in the croc waters is all about thinking about how a croc might see what you are doing.

Iza

Since 1970 their numbers have increased approximately at a rate of 100 for every 1. They have also gotten bigger. My point is, at this sort of growth rate we are quickly running out of room, they will push further south due to territorial instinct. Eventually something has to give, at what point do we say that's too many people who have lost their lives? I think it's a fair argument, perhaps not now but we are heading for a collision course with a man eater. Let's wait and see...?

The protection of crocs started in the 70's because 95% of them had been killed by unregulated hunting. It is false to claim that the numbers now are unnaturally high. The numbers in the 70's were unnaturally low prompting intervention by the government. There will probably have to be some sort of control soon as we can't have crocs walking up the main street of coastal towns. Luckily most people don't see wholesale slaughter as the solution these days, but I have no problem with culling them close to major population centre's. Australia is a big place. For the most part, live and let live.

We were camped at Towns River , a young couple there as well left their small tinny 1/2 in the water next to the boat ramp every evening after being out fishing during the day , on the 4th morning the young fella was greeted by a 3.5m saltie in his tinny waiting for breakfast …….

Here here Big fish

Live & let live.

Crocs are wild creatures living in the wild. Lets respect that.

For those who see killing as the answer to anything I question the reasoning. I expect that it is fear based. To kill something that is defenceless against the rifle is merely a
fear based cowards response

If we truly value our own lives we should equally value the lives of other living beings.

Cole

Latest News on the attack and some interesting stats

Seems the NT croc population is around 130,000 vs 235,000 NT residents, local fishermen are taking arms for protection (Isn't that normal anyhow?) . It seems the crocs are moving into freshwater also which may change the swimming habits of many. Interesting read.