Shark Cull In Australia
Saturday February 1st, 2014
Around 6,000 people gathered on Cottesloe Beach in Perth Australia to protest about a new policy allowing sharks 3 metre (10 feet) or over to be caught and killed. They are being caught by baited hooks on beaches in the Perth area on drum lines, and the targets are white, bull and tiger sharks.
The reason for the policy is due to seven shark attacks that have led to fatality in the last three years on the southwest coast of Australia. The irony though, is that a large proportion of the protesters are the people most at risk, ie divers, surfers, beach swimmers and environmentalists.
Another 2,000 protesters gathered in Sydney at Manly Beach, and hundreds more gathered at Glenelg, South Australia.
At the Glenelg rally, Rodney Fox, who has survived a shark attack explained that money should be spent on researching the sharks behaviour, rather than culling them. He said:
'We've tagged them with satellite tags with sonic tags. There's just not enough money to put enough sonic or satellite tags to find out where they go, what time of year, when there's more around. The money should be put into science,'
Dan Monbeux a Marine biologist agrees, saying:
'We need to understand their feeding and foraging behaviours,I think we also need to bring the users of the marine environment, particularly those who are out at remote surf breaks who are at highest risk to understand they are sharing waters with large predators who will follow seals which are often seen at those same surf breaks.'
Other high profile protesters include Sir Richard Branson, labelled the cull “Very sad”. Adding :
'Last year, Australia was praised all over the world for creating the biggest marine reserves. This year, the world is looking at Australia, and particularly Western Australia,and wondering what on earth is going on?''
Other high profile celebrities including comedian Ricky Gervais and diver Tom Daley have also added support to the campaign.
Well done to you all, and if adding this news article helps in any way to stop this cull, the Harbourguides crew will feel extremely happy.
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