G'Day and Scarn On and welcome to another episode of Scarn On, your source of Australian news in an easy to understand and clear manner. With all the context you need to follow what is going on in Australia. In this week's explainer, we talk about shark attacks, and why you really shouldn't fear them as much as people say. Unfortunately, this follows on from this weekend's news about a fatal shark attack in Perth's Swan River. We follow up on last week's radioactive incident. We talk about the safety crisis in Alice Springs. In sport, we talk about the conclusion to the big bash competition. And in weather, we have a number of potential cyclones forming off the Northwest and east coast of Australia. To Perth, and on Saturday, a 16 year old girl died after being bitten on the leg in the Swan River in North Fremantle. She was riding a jetski when it is believed that she saw dolphins and dived in the water, wanting to swim with them. But it appears that she was mistaken. And what she suspected to be dolphins were in fact, bull sharks. This is very unusual, and it is the first death from a shark in the Swan River in 100 years. However, there have been some close sightings and close incidents with suspected bull sharks in the Swan River in the last couple of years. One near a boat marina, and one near a popular swimming spot in the Swan River as well. And we will cover this much more in today's explainer later in the show.
As we reported last week, a tiny radioactive capsule was lost in Western Australia. Along a 1000 kilometer stretch of road. We can happily report that this was actually found against all odds. The capsule which could fit into a 10 cent piece, a 10 cent Australian piece fell off a truck while it was being transported from a mine. In the town of Newman to Perth in mid January. The radioactive capsule was considered extremely dangerous and lead the mining company Rio Tinto to warn people to stay clear of the object if they found it. Even though the capsule was so small, it contained enough radioactive material to cause radiation sickness. The Australian Defence Force was deployed and vehicles carrying radiation detection detection equipment moved along the highway looking for the capsule. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. One of the officers that said when they did actually report higher levels of radiation. They reported that the capsule had been found on February the first and that they did think that this was quite a lucky find. To the Northern Territory now and Alice Springs. It has been a very turbulent time in Alice Springs recently. Many violent crime and violent acts have been committed in recent months, and a lot of this has been due to alcohol. Alice Springs is the second main town or city in the Northern Territory. And it has a history of violence and crime, especially in recent years. There are lots of, there is lots of poverty, unemployment, alcohol and substance abuse in Alice Springs, and because it is so remote, it faces a lack of adequate social services. So governments have tried various mechanisms and responses to tackling these problems, but they persist and they are very, very, very difficult to manage. We may need to cover this in a new episode of Scarn On where we do an explainer of the intervention. But it is a very complex issue. And as such, there have been issues of race and violence and white supremacy coming up at the same time. These could also be seen as a legacy issue of colonization and dispossession amongst indigenous people as well. To finance news now, and as expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia has lifted official interest rates by 25 basis points or point two five percent. This was largely expected. But as we spoke about in our previous episode, this period presents a number of challenges for the Australian economy. People were not expecting to pay higher interest rates on their mortgages and on their debt until into 2024, after the head of the Reserve Bank said that he would not raise interest rates. So this is something to keep an eye on in the future. As mortgage repayments increase, people will struggle to pay for their mortgages and their debt on their homes. To sport now, and the conclusion of the Big Bash League was held on the weekend with the Perth scorchers playing the Brisbane Heat. The final was held at Optus Stadium, which is in Perth. The big bash league is one of the Premier 2020 Cricket leagues in the world. It has eight city based franchises, and this season lasts for a little bit over a month and a half. Next year, it will be a little bit shorter for various reasons. But this year, it has been a very successful one financially. On the final on Saturday was what we call a thriller. It was a nail biter, with the Perth scorchers seemingly out of the game until the last two overs. When a 19 year old Cooper Connolly made a hero of himself to bring the scorches home to win the game and to the massive enjoyment of local fans. To weather now, and there are three potential cyclones brewing to the north, northwest and eastern coasts of Australia. One has been named Freddy, which is in the northwest of Australia, and it is believed the one on the East Coast closest to Queensland will be named in the next 48 hours as well. It is quite common to experience cyclones at this time of year. But it is unusual to have three active cyclones in the Australian region at the same time. Most cyclones in Australia, they occur in the Northern Territory, in Western Australia, and in Queensland. They usually have strong winds and heavy rainfall and can increase the chances of flooding and storm surging as well. The cyclone season usually runs from November to April, but most cyclone activity occurs later in the season in February and March. In fact, this is probably the peak time of cyclones so we should expect more cyclones in the next month or so. Especially in what we call cyclone alley, which is the northwest coast of Australia. The northwest coast of Australia experiences many more cyclone events than other parts of Australia, but Queensland experiences by far the strongest cyclones. Now to our explainer about shark attacks in Australia. Shark attacks are relatively rare in Australia, but they do occur. There is somewhere in the vicinity of two or three deaths on average per year due to sharks, which is far far less than other accidents and injuries in the ocean and waterways. In fact, more than 120 people die from drowning each year in Australia. So it is far more risky to go surfing in Australia due to drowning than it is because of shark attacks. But over the recent years there has been much more publicity about this. So fear has been growing especially outside of Australia about the amount of shark attacks occurring. This is because there have been some high profile attacks along the eastern and western and southern coasts of Australia. The most feared shark of all the white pointer shark, the largest shark is actually not the most common shark involved in fatal attacks. It is more likely to be a bull shark, or a tiger shark and maybe even a bronze whaler. In fact, the most recent shark attack in the Swan River is believed to be from a bull shark. There are however, some, some ways that we can minimize our risk of shark attack. Swimming near river mouths, is perhaps one of the more dangerous ideas as this is where sharks frequently found and most often found. And so if people are fishing in the area, this is also a risky maneuver, as any bait might attract sharks, as well. But as I said, it is much much riskier to go swimming in Australia than it is for drowning rather than for shark attacks. Because in the whole world, there are only about six deaths per year from sharks. And this is almost all in the United States, in South Africa, and Australia. And so, it is in a really, really, really small chance of being attacked by a shark. Overall, there are about 100, there are about 80 shark attacks on humans worldwide. But this number is increasing. And we don't necessarily know why this is. One of the common reasons cited is because of the increase in whale and seal populations. About 30 or 40 years, whales and seals became protected from hunting in most parts of the world. And this being a favorite food of many different shark species is a potential reason for why shark numbers and therefore attacks might also be increasing. So one of the other common ways that surfers use to see if there are sharks in the water is if there are seals nearby, and many surfers, if they see seals, they won't be in the water, because they will think if there are seals, there are probably sharks as well.
Other possible reasons include the degradation of the habitat, and a reduction in their food sources, which means that sharks have to come in closer to shore as well to get food and therefore come into contact with more humans. It's also possible that there are just more humans in the water as well, so that the probability of people interacting with sharks is also much higher. So thanks for tuning in to this week's scarn on I hope this was informative for you. If you have any ideas or you would want anything explained, then let us know you can get us at the usual places and send us a message. Don't be scared. We'd love to help you out. Thank you very much.
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