(25) Practice Article #6: WA entitled to cull sharks

WA entitled to cull sharks

The Australian

Editorial

January 29, 2014

IN 1971, when saltwater crocodiles were first protected, decades of unregulated hunting had reduced their numbers in the Northern Territory to 3000. Now there are more than 100,000 crocs in the Top End and, on average, they are much larger. The consequences are sometimes fatal, as we saw at the weekend with the death of a 12-year-old boy in Kakadu. At least three crocodiles were shot and killed as police and park rangers responded to that tragedy. Each year upwards of 200 "problem" crocodiles posing a threat to humans are captured or killed in the Territory.

Every year along the nation's east coat, hundreds of sharks are killed by nets and baited drum-lines in longstanding programs to protect swimmers at 136 beaches. These shark control measures have proven effective. Between 1919 and 1961, there were 27 reported fatal shark attacks in Queensland; since nets and lines were introduced 53 years ago, there has been one fatality at a controlled beach. It is 60 years since the only NSW death at a netted beach (bodyboarder Zac Young was killed at unprotected Campbells Beach last year). Before the 1930s, deaths occurred at the rate of one a year - and in both states the number of people in the water has at least doubled since the measures began. The controls are not foolproof, with sharks able to swim beneath or around the nets, yet indisputably while thousands of sharks have been killed, many human lives have been saved.

Given this history it is surprising that shark control measures introduced in Western Australia - after seven fatal attacks in three years - are generating such controversy. State Treasurer Troy Buswell, an architect of the drum-line plan, says his government has a duty to protect citizens and he accuses protesters of hysteria. "What amazes me is that these people respond in this way to the WA government's efforts to protect our public, and say nothing about what's been happening in Queensland or NSW for years and years and years," he says. "I mean, it's lunacy." He has a point. Either the protesters value the lives of West Australian sharks more highly than eastern states sharks, or they value the lives of West Australian beachgoers less than swimmers on the east coast.

A similar shark program operates on the South African coast, and around the world dangerous animals from wolves and tigers to brown bears and cobras are killed or captured when close to populated areas. Elsewhere in Australia we don't tolerate funnelwebs under the house or brown snakes in the backyard. So while it is self-evident that the ocean is the great white's domain, as the estuary is for the crocodile, it should go without saying that we should minimise the risk where human populations are high.

On the east coast, common and aggressive bull and tiger sharks are seen as the greatest threat, making up the bulk of sharks killed in control programs. And the first kill in WA was either a bull or tiger shark. Bull sharks continue to thrive in Queensland's Brisbane River and coastal canals, cheek by razor-tooth with large urban population centres. Great white shark populations have proven difficult for scientists to quantify but there is ample anecdotal evidence from fishermen and scientists that numbers and sizes have significantly increased since they were protected in the late 1990s. Previously, unregulated trophy fishing had taken a heavy toll - with the numbers caught declining by up to 90 per cent over time - so it is hardly surprising the population might have recovered. What the WA government is now carrying out is far from open slather. It is a carefully monitored and targeted attempt to control the risks at popular swimming beaches, and it will be subject to environmental assessment and oversight. The evidence is that similar but more extensive programs in the eastern states have prevented many attacks - human lives should be accorded equal value in the west.

Australia's environmental record is one few countries can match. We have rescued many threatened species, including two of the world's most fearsome predators, the great white and the saltie, but we have a right to protect human lives. Activists who seek to prevent lawful shark cull activities should be dealt with under the law.