Australian state declares war on sharks

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-26/first-shark-killed/5219492

The first shark to be caught under Western Australia's new catch-and-kill policy has been destroyed.

The shark was caught on baited drum lines which were set off WA's south-west coast yesterday.

Fishermen contracted to carry out the work shot the animal and are now disposing of it.

The shark is more than three metres long; however, its species has not yet been confirmed.

The State Government's new catch-and-kill policy was announced announced in December following seven fatal attacks off the WA coast in three years.

Premier Colin Barnett has defended the policy, arguing public safety is at risk.

"When you have sharks that are three, four, five metres long of known aggressive varieties, swimming in the water very close to beachgoers, that is an imminent danger," Mr Barnett said.

"I get no pleasure out of seeing sharks killed but I have an overriding responsibility to protect the people of Western Australia."

The policy, which has outraged conservationists, states that all white, bull and tiger sharks more than three metres long can be caught and killed.

Drum lines are expected to be set off Perth beaches next week.

Piers Verstegen from the Conservation Council says the community should be outraged.

"This is the first shocking results of a policy which has no science behind it, no evidence that it will actually work and has not had a full investigation of the environmental impacts," Mr Verstegen said.

"So really this is a very sad day for Western Australia and certainly a very sad day for our sharks."
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:mad:

From the country that protests Japanese dolphin slaughter - are they too retarded to see the hypocrisy ?
 
Paul Hjul said:
considering that more people died earlier this year in Mozambique from eating a contaminated shark than are killed by shark attacks annually this is really really stupid.

Contamination of shark based foods is actually quite a problem:
http://www.livescience.com/18636-shark-fin-soup-neurotoxin.html

so maybe they should be declaring war on the shark eating industry ...
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True, but Australia is not responsible for policing Mozambique though.
 
Like Trevor Noah said...surfing in the ocean is like cruising through the Kruger Park on a skateboard. You are knowingly taking a risk. Not the sharks fault.
 
Having grown up on the Durban beachfront decades ago, I can count the number of shark attacks I'm aware of on one hand. Majority being in toti or in one case a fisherman wading in the harbour.

Heck, I remember a group of surfers who used to talk about being visited by a whale shark at the backline of north pier. If that could get around the nets, pretty sure normal sharks could too but still incidents of shark attack are extremely rare.
 
Shark-Attack-Stop-Finning-Infographic810-e196cfa4a00196db5f8f49c254685596.png
 
I was very against the Australians doing this, now that we shoot elephants… **** society.
 
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