Australia's 'rogue' great white is probably 'three sharks who were chasing whales'



Rumours of a 'rogue' man-eating shark prowling Australian waters for its next victim are unfounded, an expert has said.



Instead , George Burgess, a researcher at the University of Florida, believes the fatal shark attacks on three men over the past two months are the work of three sharks who were chasing whales.



'There's whales moving by that coastline at this time of the year, and the white sharks follow,' George Burgess, who is also the curator of the International Shark Attack File, said.



A scientist has said the likelihood of a 'rogue' great white being responsible for the recent attacks on humans in Australia is 'astronomically low'

Rogue sharks, like Jaws, are extremely rare. There is usually around one fatal shark attack a year in Australian waters

'The chance of an individual shark being involved in all three of these incidences is astronomically low. They travel 40 to 50 miles a day.'

On Saturday American diver George Thomas Wainwright died from 'shocking' injuries thought to have been caused by a 10-ft long great white.

A great white also killed an Australian swimmer earlier this month and another Aussie was knocked from his bodyboard and torn in half by one last month.

There is usually around one fatal shark attack a year in Australian waters.

Last year 14 unprovoked attacks on humans were reported, one of which was fatal.

Internationally, shark attacks on humans hit a 10-year high last year with 115 incidents.

Burgess sited several possible reasons why shark attacks in the western Australian region may be higher than average.

He told LiveScience that shifts in migration patterns due to climate change may be bringing sharks and humans closer together, while warmer sea temperatures are also luring more people into the water.

Australia's great whites are currently in the midst of their annual migration - they follow whale migration paths up the western Australian coast.

A map shows the close proximity of the fatal shark attacks on American diver George Thomas Wainwright and Aussie swimmer Bryn Martin, killed within weeks of each other

A graph shows the number of unprovoked white shark attacks worldwide has risen steadily since 1900, while the number that have been fatal has fallen

George Thomas Wainwright was fatally attacked by a great white shark while diving off a boat near Rottnest Island, near Perth

This would bring them close to humans in popular swimming, diving and boating areas, Burgess said.

'This is a very unlikely candidate for one to have stayed around and gotten the taste for humans, particularly in the case of the white shark, which is so highly migratory,' he added.

However the scientist did admit he has known of one incident involving a rogue shark like Jaws, who had developed a taste for humans.



Last year a ship carrying sheep from New Zealand to Egypt attracted the attentions of a shark after crew dropped the carcasses of several dead sheep into the water along the way.

This lured the shark to the shore where it attacked five people, killing one.



'That was a very different species and different ecological situation,' Burgess told LiveScience.

