LARGEST RALLY AGAINT CULLING/BAITING SHARKS - 10am Cottesloe Beach on Saturday, 4 January
For those who dont know more than 3,000 people have registered their interest in attending a rally at Cottesloe Beach on Saturday, 4 January, against the Western Australian Government???s new policy to bait/cull sharks.
An invite to the rally was posted on Facebook on Tuesday, 10 December after the Barnett Government announced that they would be setting baited drum lines to catch sharks over 3 meters, one kilometer from shore, with vessels monitoring the drum lines.
Hosting the event, Natalie Banks said that it was envisioned that the drum lines would be set along heavily used beaches in the Perth metropolitan area and the South-West from the end of January 2014 and will be deployed 24 hours a day through until April 2014. ???This initiative is purely a knee-jerk reaction to the general public???s fear of shark attacks, and will not help us to understand the shark populations, or guarantee that shark attacks will completely stop,???
Ms Banks said. ???More needs to be done to develop sustainable shark attack mitigation strategies, including tagging and tracking, helicopter patrols, bubble curtains, underwater sounds and sharks??? visual perception.???
While the organisers of the rally acknowledge that the loss of human lives due to a shark attack is tragic, there is still much more research required to understand whether there is an increase in shark presence and if so, what the contributing factors are.
???There are so many unanswered questions about how baiting will affect the marine ecosystem and what impact changes to ocean currents, raised water temperatures, diminished fish stocks and increased populations have,??? Ms Banks said.
???It seems ludicrous to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBCA) to remove white sharks as a protected species in order to undertake a quasi-cull.???
Those attending the rally have baulked at the indiscriminate way that the sharks will be caught, whereby ???innocent??? sharks will be caught in the bait lines, along with other marine life such as sea turtles which are a threatened and endangered species. Concerns have been raised whereby bait lines may encourage more sharks to become accustomed to bait and frequent these areas off popular swimming beaches more often.
They have also cited the Australian Bureau of Statistics??? research on the underlying causes of death in 2011 within the country which reveals that there were five deaths from contact with a marine animal (which doesn???t confirm a shark was involved) compared to 58 deaths from a fall involving a bed.
???There has been a general feeling of disgust, dismay and horror from those attending the rally and a belief that the baiting initiative is an over-reaction based purely on the unknown regarding shark attacks in Australia,??? Ms Banks said.
???Additionally, comments such as the attacks in WA are affecting tourism are contradictory to the statistics from Tourism WA which shows that there were 22 million visitors to/within Western Australia as of September 2013, up from 21.3 million in September 2012 or in percentage terms, a 3.2% increase.???
The organisers of the event have applauded WA Greens Senator, Rachel Siewert???s motion to the Australian Senate that was passed recently to acknowledge that the Great White Shark listed under the EPBCA as a threatened and migratory species and that they maintain protection, oppose the WA Government???s proposals to cull sharks and support further research to better inform and protect ocean users.
FACEBOOK EVENT - Largest protest against culling/baiting sharks - a cause for Jaws!
www.facebook.com/events/693562804011821/695702950464473/?comment_id=695703753797726&;
The organisers need to arrange a speaker system, security and banners (waterproof ones!). As such, are asking for a contribution to help pay for these items. Whatever you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
www.gofundme.com/f/5qx7u0
