Australia's Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, Tim Mulherin, believes in anti shark programs for tourism.This week it was announced Australia's long standing drum line program had successfully killed 500 breeding aged animals from 14 foot Great whites to 12 foot Tigers.
All in the name of tourism and "incident free beaches."
"Any size shark can cause serious injury or death if they attack. However, sharks more than 2m long are particularly dangerous and are more likely to cause fatal injuries, he said."
Drum lines and shark nets are a surprising 1960's answer to shark attacks worldwide and indiscriminately destroy regional populations of sharks and assorted by catch from dolphins to turtles.
Sadly there are viable options for regional governments that would work to preserve shark populations.
This blog proposed viable "human netting options"
many months ago along with a first alert tagging program.
In the end it is up to regional efforts lead by local stakeholders to effect conservation change.
Until the public is made aware of the abject waste of top predators in their waters the killing will continue and future shark generation will continue to decline.
It would seem that sharks in Australia just cannot seem to get a break. An ecological disaster in the making since 1963.
1 comment:
It is sad, that a guy like Australia's Minister for Fisheries, Tim Mulherin, has no idea what he is doing. I don't think he cares too much about the negative effects his policies have on the ocean. It is time that politicians educate themselves, because "Knowledge leads to Understanding". How can we stop people from killing sharks, when governments are incorrigible?
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