shark attacks scare people

The scene took place on a beach, in the middle of the day. On February 19, 2023, 150 meters from the shore, an Australian swimmer was caught by a shark. This deadly attack occurred on one of the busiest swimming spots in Noumea. “We were very scared, we weren’t far away and we are wondering what is going on with all these sharks”, testifies a resident. It was the third shark attack in the space of three weeks in Noumea.

Shark cull campaign launched

Since then, swimming has been banned and a campaign to kill bulldog and tiger sharks, suspected of being the perpetrators of these attacks, has been launched. “I don’t know why there is this aggressiveness all of a sudden and why these sharks arrive very close to the coast. I think there is an overpopulation and I sincerely believe that a certain number of them must be eliminated”, says Sonia Lagarde, the Renaissance mayor of Nouméa. Locally, this campaign, which led to the slaughter of 18 sharks, is far from unanimous, because these two types of sharks are endangered species.