Australia to go ahead with shark "kill" zones.

Source

Sydney — A controversial policy to catch and kill sharks off popular west coast beaches got the green light in Australia, in a move the Humane Society Tuesday termed a "complete disgrace".

The federal government granted an exemption from environmental laws to approve Western Australia's shark mitigation plan, which is aimed at reducing the risks to water users after six fatal attacks in the past two years.

It means baited drum lines with hooks designed to capture large sharks can be set one kilometre (0.62 miles) offshore at busy Western Australian beaches from now until April 30.

The state government has said that any shark longer than three metres (10 feet) snagged by the lines and deemed to be a threat -- including great white, bull and tiger sharks -- will be humanely destroyed.

With almost every shark on earth now being placed in one of three critical extinction groups... Vulnerable, Endangered or critically endangered source you would think that more care would be taken to protect the magestic predator of the sea, which has been around since prehistoric times 450 million years of sharks

Unfortunately it would seem that surfers lives are more important than the poor ol' sharks, and a series of tragedies in recent years has spurred on the want for these kill zones. Here in England skaters are banned from skating the city centre, and the only thing we could possibly do is break a 100 year olds leg. Shame Australia doesn't think to save the 450 million year old shark.

I can't help wondering how many of these sharks which they are promising will be disposed of "humanely" will end up in expensive Japanese soups...

What say you ATS? We in England killed all our predators... Should other nations be allowed to do the same?

In ten years there will be no animals left, at least we got to see them

reply to post by Lagrimas


I guarantee if you came face-to-face with a Great White while you're just trying to go for a swim you would change your tune quick smart.

It's easy to sit back and judge the actions of others from the other side of the world where things are done differently. This reminds me of the time that their was a Kangaroo cull announced a few years ago and us Aussies had to put up with a whole bunch of people whinging about the "poor Kangaroos" without giving a single thought to the fact that they are in plague proportions in certain areas and can do great damage to crops and property.

reply to post by Lagrimas



What I find humorous is how they think that placing bait off the coast will do anything other than attract more sharks to the area. Huge fail Australia.

reply to post by Samuelis

It means baited drum lines with hooks designed to capture large sharks can be set one kilometre (0.62 miles) offshore at busy Western Australian beaches from now until April 30.

It's attracting the sharks AWAY from the shore where they tend to congregate. How is that a fail?

reply to post by Samuelis


I completely agree. Sharks are there and you know the risks when you enter the water.
When you consider the size of Oz, the amount of people who enter the water and how often. 6 out of tens possibly hundreds of millions is pretty good odds in our favour. Although you have more chance of being eaten by a shark than you do of winning the lottery.
The damage isn't in the lives lost in fatal shark attacks, it's in tourism... And we can't have that now can we?

spearhead
reply to post by Samuelis

 

When you consider the size of Oz, the amount of people who enter the water and how often. 6 out of tens of millions is pretty good odds in our favour.

They are only baiting the beaches that people frequent. As you said, when you consider the size of Oz - particularly the WA coastline - there are plenty of other places for sharks to congregate than the relatively few beaches humans can swim at. Are you suggesting someone from Perth drive all the way up to say Broome just to go for a swim? That is ridiculous.

I'm all for this... its about time humans started protecting humans.

Yes, the ocean is their territory I understand that, BUT! People are not being taken while out in the deep ocean, they are being take from shore, from places where typically sharks never attacked people. Not all, but a large majority!

Which is why they aren't hunting sharks out in the ocean, they are killing the sharks that come close to shore/humans....
and not just any shark, they are killing the LARGE ones.

examples:
January 19th 2014

BARELY 50m from the sand, these are the frightening pictures that show just how close a shark came to attacking unsuspecting swimmers. Typically spotted around dawn and dusk, these photographs of the four-metre great white shark coming within metres of swimmers at Hawks Nest, on the state's north coast, were taken around lunchtime.

Link

a 4m great white 50m off shore is not something that needs to be left alone because we're in ''its territory''..50m of the beach is our territory!

or how about this:
November 13 2013

Link

Trigg Beach was closed yesterday afternoon when a four-metre shark was sighted 50m offshore.
At 3.45pm the beach was re-opened, about an hour after the shark was reported.
Shaun Daly, 19, said the shark nudged him in the water.
"It was massive, it was a big boy," Mr Daly said.
"It full on went for me, I would have been chomped fully, it full-on knocked me off my board... it was going for the kill."

We have let the sharks breed, feed and thrive...and now humans are at risk on the beaches. I support culling large sharks that come close to shore!

edit on 21-1-2014 by Agit8dChop because: (no reason given)

reply to post by Kryties

I guarantee if you came face-to-face with a Great White while you're just trying to go for a swim you would change your tune quick smart.

Quite a few shark attack survivors have spoken out against this cull.

Two recent ones:

www.abc.net.au...
www.smh.com.au...

reply to post by Kryties


I'm just suggesting you stop eating fish. That way the ocean can restock returning a natural food source for Bruce, one that isn't us...
We eat everything in the ocean, see. No more fish for seals, penguins and other big critters. Now sharks must eat the other other white meat.

reply to post by Kryties


wait... you invade into shark habitat, only for the fun of it (bathing /surfing), so the sharks have to go?

Australia always was the NWO poster-kid... with a mindset like this, it s only logical... how s that coal shipment terminal doing that your PM wants to build and remove parts of the Barier reef for it? you are frigging idiots if there wasn t a national outrage and reprecussions for thoise perpetrating all that crap, already...

reply to post by Dynamitrios


Yep, here they are - those whingers I talked about in my first post that sit back on the other side of the world telling us how we should be doing things down here, without having a clue as to the reality of the situation.

reply to post by Kryties


the reality of the situation is, that this is a knee-jerk reflex of the worst kind, something a developing nAtion, or third-world country would pull off... ecological suicide.... in the grand sceme of things you tip the balance of the oceans severely by killing sharks, that are endangered already... just because they attacked and killed a few people... THAT S your solution? Good job, Asstralia...

Dynamitrios
reply to post by Kryties

 

that this is a knee-jerk reflex of the worst kind

Knee-jerk? What planet do you live on? We've been dealing with shark attacks for over 200 years mate.

Dynamitrios
reply to post by Kryties

 

the reality of the situation is, that this is a knee-jerk reflex of the worst kind, something a developing nAtion, or third-world country would pull off... ecological suicide.... in the grand sceme of things you tip the balance of the oceans severely by killing sharks, that are endangered already... just because they attacked and killed a few people... THAT S your solution? Good job, Asstralia...

Crikey mate. "Asstralia?" I recall it was called "Strayla" Maybe I'm living in the wrong country. I do know that there are a multitude of boats arriving here each season from up north and what they do is catch the sharks, cut off the fins and let them go. We banned these boats. Locked up their crews and burnt the boats when we caught them.

Suddenly we were racist. Can't seem to get anything right. I guess in today's climate of correctness I must opologise for being an "asstralian".

So, "i'm sorry mate."

Kryties
reply to post by Lagrimas

 

I guarantee if you came face-to-face with a Great White while you're just trying to go for a swim you would change your tune quick smart.

It's easy to sit back and judge the actions of others from the other side of the world where things are done differently. This reminds me of the time that their was a Kangaroo cull announced a few years ago and us Aussies had to put up with a whole bunch of people whinging about the "poor Kangaroos" without giving a single thought to the fact that they are in plague proportions in certain areas and can do great damage to crops and property.

What a lot of nonsense, sorry... The kangaroo cull is like a badger cull or killing rats... Kangaroos are vermin to you guys because they over breed, I understand that a cull is necessary thing at times.
This on the other hand is about economics. If a surfer wants to go out deep to catch big waves in the SEA, which comes with SHARKS then they should have to do it at their own risk. A surf board looks like a seal from below to the shark, if you disguise yourself as food and then go in their home expect yourself to get eaten.

No I'm sorry a badger cull and killing endangered species is not the same.

The Australian government would rather kill the sharks than loose tourism revenues. Why not be inventive and make some sort of net system that keeps sea life out of the bay instead of killing them?

Lagrimas


The Australian government would rather kill the sharks than loose tourism revenues. Why not be inventive and make some sort of net system that keeps sea life out of the bay instead of killing them?

Nets have been proven not to work and only serve to kill the sharks in a inhumane manner when they become tangled in them.

Methinks you need to do more research before spouting off about stuff you haven't a clue about.

reply to post by Kryties


Yea exactly, keep dealing with them don't help to kill them off? I wonder how many Ozzie's jump on the Japan are terrible THEY kill sharks band wagon. Well now your elected are making you do it. Stand up to them, don't agree, oh wait but having a safe swim is more important. Well I've got something to say... Since the 70's world population has not doubled or tripled its gone up six times from one billion to six. More people on earth means more holiday makers, more people in the sea= more people to eat. This isn't a shark problem, the shark numbers are already DEPLETED! There's more people and less sharks in the water, and yet the answer is to kill of the last remaining sharks. Give me a break.

reply to post by Kryties


No I enjoy a healthy discussion, perhaps the nets have been proven not to work, no shame in me not knowing that. Its a shame if that's true... I guess for you the only answer is to humanely extinct them.
I on the other hand believe that when there is a will there is a way.
I would sooner ban swimming than kill the sharks. Sorry bro.

spearhead
reply to post by Samuelis

 

I completely agree. Sharks are there and you know the risks when you enter the water.
When you consider the size of Oz, the amount of people who enter the water and how often. 6 out of tens possibly hundreds of millions is pretty good odds in our favour. Although you have more chance of being eaten by a shark than you do of winning the lottery.
The damage isn't in the lives lost in fatal shark attacks, it's in tourism... And we can't have that now can we?

edit on 21/1/14 by spearhead because: (no reason given)

I'm glad you understand its to do with money.

A couple of things:

This is only one state, Western Australia, not Australia as a whole. So it is probably worth directing your attention at the state, not the country.

People who are criticising Australians as a whole over the matter obviously do not understand the lengths a lot of individuals have gone to in order to have this type of stuff stopped.

Thousands of people rallied at Western Australian beaches...THOUSANDS. Like upwards of 4000-5000...A lot of the activists are claiming that they will sabotage government operations to halt the killings of large sharks.

---

Me, i personally do not support the operation. I feel that the ocean is their territory, and the land, ours. If we go for a swim in the ocean, we are opening ourselves up to danger. It is something everyone knows, and it is something people should be prepared to deal with by swimming in such conditions.

I do not approve of international members here, berating Australians over situations clearly out of our control. No one likes it when others do it to them, but they are more than happy to do it to us. Double standards much?

- Daas.