I am a builder of Laser and other off-the-beach craft.
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You would have to be blind to not acknowledge that Lake Maquarie has a major problem with bull sharks.
I have sailed and surfed since I was eight years old and would be on the lake at least once a week.
I have never, in all my years, seen so many sharks.
I do not let my Opti sailing daughters swim in the lake.
There are many documentaries about bull sharks being attracted to fishing boats and sailing boats as the activity stirs up fish activity.
I grew up swimming and surfing in the 1980s and ’90s, and always wondered why my grandmother was horrified that we never used the many fenced swimming areas around our harbours and beaches.
And I often looked and wondered why we had all of those protected areas.
My conclusion is that now that there is virtually no fishing on our coastline or waterways, and the local fish shops got fancy with what they serve, and flake is no more, we have now got plenty of shark friends to deal with.
Our fishery guy (‘‘What lurks beneath a more healthy lake’’, Lakes Mail, Oct 11) needs to take up sailing to see I am right.
We had the Australian sailing team training on the lake and they moved as they kept getting followed by bull sharks.
It will be just a matter of time before one has a snap at kids in the lake.
There is nothing we can do about that apart from making people aware they are there, and learning to live with them.
– Chris Caldecoat, Performance Sailcraft Australia