A TIDAL wave of emotion swept WA yesterday as two more undersized tiger sharks were caught on Perth drum lines and a giant crowd swamped Cottesloe Beach in protest against the Barnett Government’s catch-and-kill shark policy.
It came as scientists claimed the 3m limit was an arbitrary figure and not based on any research or correlation to shark attacks.
As 6000 people on Cottesloe Beach chanted “Shame on Barnett”, “Great whites have rights”, and “It’s their water, stop the slaughter”, Fisheries officers checked drum lines 1km offshore as part of the shark-cull program that has divided WA and attracted international condemnation.
A 2m tiger shark was pulled up dead off Leighton Beach at 6.45am – despite Government claims its drum lines would only target sharks above 3m.
It was later dumped about 12km out at sea.
A 2.3m tiger shark was caught and freed off Scarborough at 10.30am.
Four undersized tiger sharks have been caught off Perth since the drum lines were set on Friday. Tiger sharks have not been implicated in WA shark attacks for more than 20 years.
None of the four were tagged, but the WA Government said it was “phasing in” research such as tagging.
University of WA Centre for Marine Futures director Jessica Meeuwig, who spoke at another rally held at Dunsborough yesterday, said it was “unclear” how shark size related to attacks and questioned how the 3m kill size was chosen.
A spokesman for Mr Barnett told The Sunday Times: “A shark of any size can be dangerous; however the decision to select 3m sharks is based on previous fatalities involving sharks of that size.
“We are trying to achieve a reasonable balance between conservation and public safety.”
A follow-up question about which fatalities the Government meant went unanswered.
Prof Meeuwig told the rally there were better alternatives and cited an eight-year Brazilian drum line program where sharks were caught, tagged, towed out to sea and released with a 97 per cent drop in “shark incidents”.
Protesters also gathered for rallies in New Zealand, South Africa, across Australia and elsewhere in WA at Bunbury, Warnbro, Broome, Coral Bay and Shark Bay.
But the biggest was Cottesloe where the beach was a sea of inflatable sharks and placards reading “save our sharks”, “Killer Colin” and “solutions not slaughter”.
Aircraft flew overhead, boats bobbed offshore, and the seething crowd chanted and booed as the world’s media documented the of rage.
Not everyone was opposed to a cull. A small number of people at Cottesloe held up signs reading “Sharks kill innocent people”.
Having a swim with his daughter Chloe, 5, at North Cottesloe yesterday, carpenter Joel Fitzgerald, 39, said there was “nothing wrong with taking a few out of the ecosystem to make beaches safer”.
Earlier, activist Gillian Smith, 19, of Fremantle, was charged with trespassing after locking herself on to a Fisheries boat to stop it leaving port about 4am.
Tim Nicol, vice president of peak environmental group Conservation Council WA, told the Cottesloe crowd there was no science to say the ocean was “crawling with sharks” and no research proving drum lines made beaches safer.
“The cull is driven by fear and fear alone,” he said.
Shark expert Hugh Edwards called for more research, while Sea Shepherd director Jeff Hansen said the laws could spark vigilante killings of great whites and tiger sharks.
Greens MP Lynn MacLaren said she would hand a petition to Federal Parliament with 79,000 signatures.
source: theaustralian.com.au
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