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Source: ONE News -
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Dunedin's cash-strapped council has decided to do away with the shark nets that have protected Dunedin beaches over summer for decades.
But today there was also a reminder of a time when fears of shark attacks loomed large for the city.
Forty years ago Barry Watkins survived an attack from a White Pointer near Dunedin's Saltwater Pool.
Today he unveiled a plaque commemorating three other young men weren't so lucky, all killed by sharks near Dunedin in the mid-sixties.
Watkins donated the plaque and spoke at the unveiling today, saying: "You'll never catch them or kill them off in nets."
Margaret Card, whose brother Bill Black was one of the men taken, was present.
"It's somewhere we can come to and think about him because he was never found. There's no headstone to him."
Department of Conservation shark expert Clinton Duffy believes so many attacks over such a short period may have been more than just a coincidence.
"There may have been a single shark responsible for the attacks.
"We know that sharks, white sharks in particular, are creatures of habit and the sharks tend to visit the same places year after year."
The theory is supported by the fact that the spate of attacks ended in the early seventies.
Despite fears that swimmers may be more vulnerable to attacks, Duffy told ONE News he doesn't believe removing the nets will necessarily endanger them.
"I don't see that the removal of the nets will increase the risk to swimmers any more than there is already."
Meanwhile, Dunedin's bell for warning swimmers stands ready, a reminder of a time when fatal shark attacks were all too common.
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