Let me say it is a tragedy when anybody dies. Let us just remember that a dozen or more people died on Western Australian Roads yesterday.
Read the article and then feel free to send the Premier of Western Australia your disgust via the following email address. wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au
***update to my blogger friends - please post a link to this post or copy and paste it to your blog please***
The first was a 1m tiger shark caught off Cottesloe, which was released by Fisheries Department officers because it was below the 3m catch limit. The second shark, a 2.6m tiger shark, was caught about 11.30am.
Richard Branson lashes WA shark killing
The second of the two sharks caught
this morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger that later
returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian
This afternoon, the Department of Fisheries issued a statement, saying undersize and non-target species sharks would be released further out to sea.
Fisheries officers pull up a shark from the baited hooks off a Perth beach. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian
It read: "The Department of Fisheries has advised that where practicable, it will release any non-targeted species that is still alive further out to sea, having due regard to not compromising the survival of the shark and of remaining within state waters."
Fisheries officers set out from Fremantle early this morning to begin deploying drum lines and baited hooks 1km from shore.
Protesters including the "marine response unit" - a team of activists who say they are determined to stop the drum line operation - are now considering how they will respond.
The second shark catch of the
morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned
to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian
Fisherman sets WA's shark catch and kill drumlines
The second shark catch of the
morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned
to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian
Pro-shark activists remove bail from South West drumlines
Barnett ministers bombarded with protest emails
The second shark catch of the morning
off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned to the
sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian
Set to speak at the 5000 strong anti-shark cull rally tomorrow, Ms MacLaren said: "The Premier seems to have made this decision all by himself while disregarding overwhelming science and constituent concern.
Mr Barnett will still be able to hear the protests of 5000 Western Australians from Africa, where he has conveniently disappeared to while the metropolitan drum-lines are dropped."
"I wonder how safe South Fremantle beachgoers will feel knowing that there is a meat curtain in the form of baited hooks hanging 1km from their favourite beach, with a fisher waiting with a rifle," she said.
"From South Fremantle to Scarborough, Leighton Beach, Cottesloe and Scarborough we now have to witness the killing of an apex predator that maintains the balance of our oceans, the world is watching and this is an embarrassment to Western Australia".
It comes as an email bombardment began targeting every local MP in WA with no shark cull messages as the Conservation Council urges West Australians to "ramp up the pressure on their local Members of Parliament".
Since the introduction of the shark mitigation program earlier this month in the South-West, only one shark is known to have been caught and shot dead off Old Dunsborough.
To balance - here is a piece from Discovery re the risks of Shark Attack. Completely at odds with the WA Governments shark attack propoganda.
Guest commentator Debbie Salamone is Communications Manager at the Pew Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast.
There’s nothing like a good shark attack story. I should know. I was a journalist for 21 years near Volusia County, Florida — the shark bite capital of the world. I even made sure someone phoned my newspaper to report my own shark attack as I was pumped full of morphine and wheeled into the operating room.
Sharks always seem to be taking the rap as man-eating villains –- in the media, movies and books. So let’s get a little perspective. Your chances of being attacked by a shark are just one in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
On average, there are about 65 shark attacks worldwide each year; a handful are fatal. You are more likely to be killed by a dog, snake or in a car collision with a deer. You’re also 30 times more likely to be killed by lightning and three times more likely to drown at the beach than die from a shark attack, according to ISAF.
Even digging a sand hole is more dangerous…
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that from 1990 to 2006, 16 people died by digging until the sand collapsed and smothered them. ISAF counted a dozen U.S. shark deaths in the same period. Clearly, you’d be safer in the water, with the sharks.
Still not convinced? Consider another ISAF statistic: In one year in the U.S., sharks injured just 13 people while nearly 200,000 were hurt in accidents involving ladders, toilets and chainsaws.
And in an older, but memorable study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, researchers tracked vending machine deaths from 1977 to 1995. Thirty-seven people were killed when they toppled a vending machine to get a reluctant quarter or cola — an average of about two per year, or twice the number killed by sharks in the US. Just when you thought it was safe to get a Dr. Pepper…
You get the picture.
Even when they do happen, most shark attacks are “hit and run” — the shark takes a bite, realises it made a mistake and moves on to something more delicious. That’s what happened to me. Devastating injuries and brutal attacks are much more unusual.
Sharks may not appear as the most cuddly creatures on Earth, but they are worth saving for the health of the entire ocean ecosystem. Learn more about the threats to sharks and the importance of preserving them at www.pewsharks.org. And if you’re still afraid to go back in the water, more comforting statistics on the risk of shark attacks are available at ISAF.
There’s nothing like a good shark attack story. I should know. I was a journalist for 21 years near Volusia County, Florida — the shark bite capital of the world. I even made sure someone phoned my newspaper to report my own shark attack as I was pumped full of morphine and wheeled into the operating room.
Sharks always seem to be taking the rap as man-eating villains –- in the media, movies and books. So let’s get a little perspective. Your chances of being attacked by a shark are just one in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
On average, there are about 65 shark attacks worldwide each year; a handful are fatal. You are more likely to be killed by a dog, snake or in a car collision with a deer. You’re also 30 times more likely to be killed by lightning and three times more likely to drown at the beach than die from a shark attack, according to ISAF.
Even digging a sand hole is more dangerous…
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that from 1990 to 2006, 16 people died by digging until the sand collapsed and smothered them. ISAF counted a dozen U.S. shark deaths in the same period. Clearly, you’d be safer in the water, with the sharks.
Still not convinced? Consider another ISAF statistic: In one year in the U.S., sharks injured just 13 people while nearly 200,000 were hurt in accidents involving ladders, toilets and chainsaws.
And in an older, but memorable study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, researchers tracked vending machine deaths from 1977 to 1995. Thirty-seven people were killed when they toppled a vending machine to get a reluctant quarter or cola — an average of about two per year, or twice the number killed by sharks in the US. Just when you thought it was safe to get a Dr. Pepper…
You get the picture.
Even when they do happen, most shark attacks are “hit and run” — the shark takes a bite, realises it made a mistake and moves on to something more delicious. That’s what happened to me. Devastating injuries and brutal attacks are much more unusual.
Sharks may not appear as the most cuddly creatures on Earth, but they are worth saving for the health of the entire ocean ecosystem. Learn more about the threats to sharks and the importance of preserving them at www.pewsharks.org. And if you’re still afraid to go back in the water, more comforting statistics on the risk of shark attacks are available at ISAF.
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