Another bloody croc attack

There was another saltwater crocodile attack in Arnhem on the weekend. The victim was an eight year old aboriginal girl who was snatched from the Blythe river near Arnhem land in the Northern Territory, Australia.

The smh story is here.

The girl is the 6th person to be taken by crocodiles in the last four years.

The other victims include:

• Sep 2005 Darwin man Russell Butel, 55, killed while diving off Coburg Peninsula.
• Sep 2005 Russell Harris, 37, killed while snorkelling off Groote Eylandt.
• Aug 2005 Fisherman Barry Jefferies killed at Lakefield National Park, Cape York.
• Dec 2003 Brett Mann, 22, killed in Finniss River, NT.
• Oct 2002 Isabel von Jordan, 23, killed while swimming in Kakadu National Park.

(from smh).

Though many hundreds more people die in car accidents every year than are killed by crocs, crocodile attacks touch upon a primal fear base of humans. We are still (rightly) scared of being eaten alive. And this sort of frequency of attack is alarming, if only for the fact that its increasing.

For those outside Australia, we have two types of crocs: the saltwater croc (Crocodylus porosus):

And its much smaller cousin, the Freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnsonii


While freshies can inflict a nasty nick, they're not usually dangerous, and are generally pretty timid around humans.
The unfortunately named salties, however, are killers. The Australian terms: freshwater and saltwater crocs, are really misleading. Saltwater crocs can, and quite often do, live in freshwater, as well as dominating the estuary environment (or open ocean for that matter). Freshwater crocs are generally restricted to upper catchment and escarpments that salties rarely reach.

So how can you prevent these attacks? Well, unfortunately, in the case of the last one, its hard to see what else can be done. The family is local, they know the region and appreciate the risks crocodiles impose. The details aren't clear in the reports, but its possible they took a little too much for granted. Or it was unavoidable.

In the case of the last 5 previous attacks, its interesting that 2 of them involve people snorkelling/scuba diving - and from the sound of it in open water. Short of carrying a high-power spear-gun, again, these incidents were hard to prevent. They are part of the risk of swimming in crocodile country.

Crocodile attacks can easily be avoided. (from Outback Australia Travel Advice)
This is the general attitude of most pro-Tourism or even environmental sites you peruse. But is it true? In one sense yes: avoid the water. Avoid the water's edge. Avoid camping anywhere near the water. Avoid slopes leading down near the water. Maybe avoid the top end all together, and holiday in South Australia. And avoid the water there cause of the great whites.
In fact, doing activities that the top end is famous for (fishing, swimming in isolated waterholes) will inevitably put you at risk of croc attacks. But generally, if there is a sign with a crocodile on it, don't get in the water.



There are a few things you can do to minimise the risks, though, like don't get plastered and go swimming. In fact, nearly a third of all crocodile attacks involve alcohol. Which is probably not so surprising. Additionally, don't do this:

Seriously. Crocodiles have only 2 ways of interacting with other species: fear it or eat it. During the 1960's and the decimation of Australia's crocs due to unrestricted hunting, the big crocs got cagey around anything with two legs holding a pointy stick. However, the ones born since then don't know or care, and regard us smaller humans as home-delivery. This lack of fear of humans is due in large part to familiarity, and the fact that we feed them:


The case of a croc attacking a man with a chainsaw shows they have really lost their healthy respect of people. Maybe we need more handbag-wielding grannies to show 'em a thing or two.


A further list of all (including non-fatal) attacks from 2002-

• Oct 2004 - NT. Teenager escapes from jaws of crocodile with only minor puncture wounds.
• Oct 2004 - Qld. A four metre crocodile attacks a man sleeping in a tent on a beach at Cape Melville in far north Queensland.
• Oct 2004 - Qld. A Barramundi fisherman loses the tip of his index finger, bitten off by a crocodile while he was trying to free it from a net on the Nassau River on Cape York Peninsula.
• April 2004 - Qld. An 11-year-old girl has her arm grabbed by a crocodile while swimming at Margaret Bay on Cape York Peninsula.
• Dec 2003 - NT. Brett Mann, 22, killed after wading into the Finniss River, 80km from Darwin.
• Nov 2003 - NT. A woman beats off a crocodile with a bag of mussels after it bit her on the back while she was wading across a creek on Melville Island.
• Nov 2003 - NT. Teenager Manuel Gandigorrtij escapes from the jaws of a three-metre crocodile when his 53-year-old aunt punched it in the nose at Jibalbal Outstation, in Arnhem Land.
• Sept 2003 - NT. A tour guide suffers puncture wounds after being attacked by a 1.5m freshwater crocodile at a popular plunge pool in Kakadu National Park.
• Sept 2003 - NT. A 10-year-old girl received cuts to her leg after being attacked by a 2.13m crocodile as she swam with friends in a billabong at the Aboriginal community at Patonga Airstrip in Kakadu National Park.
• Oct 2002 - NT. German tourist Isabel von Jordan, 23, killed while swimming at a water hole at Kakadu National Park.-AAP

There has been quite a lot of interest in von Jordan's death (going of the google search hits here). To follow through: she was with an organized tour, swimming at a waterhole known for saltwater crocs. The problem here was a grevious and somewhat baffling decision from the tour guide to allow his group to swim at Sandy Billabong. The people on tour don't know better, and the tour guide has a duty of care towards those under his charge. So why? The guide made some statements to police about having seen aboriginal people swimming in the area (soundly denied by local aboriginals, and not believed by the coroner). In short, it was a really dumb decision that cost someone their life.
The thing to remember on tour in the top end: tour guides are not licensed. They come and go fairly quickly. This is from the coroner's report: "tour guides are able to operate generally in the Northern Territory without any minimum training requirements, without public liability insurance, and without any qualifications in first aid or resuscitation. Coroners in this jurisdiction have made this observation time and again in relation to drowning deaths in the Territory since the late 1980s." So, do not trust your tourguides. If there is a sign with a croc on it, stay out.
That's the other point. There is quite a bit signage in Kakadu National Park - most of it, like the sign above, saying "Stay Out". This is where it gets confusing, cause you can swim at JimJim falls, which has a sign. What they don't tell you is that the rangers run an efficient croc management program at Jimjim falls to keep crocs out so people can swim. The sign is there cause crocs can get potentially get in. In other areas, you have the same sign, but no croc management - how are tourists meant to know the difference?

Sandy Billabong: site of Isobel von Jordan's attack

Sandy Billabong, with "No Swimming" sign.

Doesn't look like much, does it? Not a real nice swimming hole in any case. But it is perfect saltie territory. The exact sequence of events surrounding the incident are outlined in the coroner's report:

"8. On the evening of 22 October, the group camped in the designated camping ground at Sandy Billabong. They had dinner at about 9 pm. At about 10.30 pm on that night, Mr Robless suggested they could swim off a sandbar situated on Nourlangie Creek approximately 1.5 kilometres from the camp site. He led the group to the location and seven members of the group commenced to swim in the Creek, whilst two remained on the bank. After the group had been swimming for a short time, Mr Robless left them there in order to make contact with a guide from Gondwana who was leading another tour group in the area.

9. In Mr Robless's absence, a large saltwater crocodile swam amongst the group and dragged the deceased below the water. She was not immediately seen to be missing. It took some time for the remaining members of the group to realise something was amiss. Certain members of the group have a recollection of the deceased giving a shout or yelp. Those who heard that sound initially thought it was part of the general “skylarking”. Another member of the group had felt something brush against her legs at about the time the deceased disappeared. Yet another member of the group thought he had seen something large swimming from the area. The realisation dawned that the deceased had likely been taken by a crocodile."

Pretty horrific. She was taken under and no-one even realised. Plus they were swimming at night, in a crocodile infested waterhole, which had signs up... It really should never have happened. Not that its any condolence to the family, but they got the croc that took her; a 4m+ croc weighing in at 400kg - not in the best shape either, which may have been why it was hunting humans (not that crocs need much incentive).

The full coroner's report can be found here.

A somewhat disturbing spin-off of the whole incident is the effect its had for business in NT. Business boomed. You would think something like this would be bad for tourism, but just the opposite. The territory came of as an untouched, rugged, and quite dangerous wilderness - which appealed to the adventurist types inclined to visit the region. This starts to reek of profiteering of someone's death, but I guess there's no accounting for human nature.


For the record, from wikipedia: The most deaths in a single crocodile attack incident may have occurred during the Battle of Ramree Island, on February 19, 1945, in what is now Burma. Nine hundred soldiers of an Imperial Japanese Army unit, in an attempt to retreat from the Royal Navy and rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry, crossed through ten miles of mangrove swamps which contained Saltwater Crocodiles. Twenty Japanese soldiers were captured alive by the British, and almost five hundred are known to have escaped Ramree. Many of the remainder may have been eaten by the crocodiles, although gunfire from the British troops was undoubtedly a contributory factor.
Bit more horrific than the worst pile-ups I've heard of.