11-time world champion Kelly Slater, known for his public stance of environmental and conservation issues has weighed in on the shark cull debate following the latest shark attack death on the island, a 26-year-old bodyboarder called Crapaud.

Speaking on Jeremy Flores IG, Slater joined the likes of Flores and other Reunion pros who have long since called for a control on shark numbers. Such a cull is opposed by conservation groups such as Sea Shepherd.

“Honestly, I won’t be popular for saying this,” begins Slater, “but there needs to be a serious cull on Reunion and it should happen everyday. There is a clear imbalance happening in the ocean there. If the whole world had these rates of attack nobody would use the ocean and literally millions of people would be dying like this. The French govt needs to figure this out asap. 20 attacks since 2011!?

“There needs to be a serious cull on Reunion and it should happen everyday” – Kelly Slater

Jeremy responded: Like you said. Réunion is clearly diferent than any other places in the world in relation of sharks… Our problem here are the bullsharks, they are killing everything including many diferent protected species of sharks. Unfortunaly it feels like it’s difficult for people to understaind the issues we are having here. People are dying one after another and for some this sounds normal but it really isn’t. The community of Réunion island surfers are naturally ocean & environment lovers since many generations but things are getting really serious and we are tired of crying our brothers. Its time for unity to protect our small Coast. Thank you for your comment, it gives hope that somebody who knows so well the environment is understainding the nightmare we are living here. And to all the other haters, please try to understaind our situation here before giving a blind opinion.”