80 sharks have been snared by State Government shark hunters off the Queensland coast in the last two months alone, While last year?s catch of 686 sharks was down on the previous year the catch included the highest number of these ?dangerous? sharks in three years. Queensland?s shark cull has been running since 1962 and tens of thousands of sharks have been killed. An average of 500 to 700 sharks a year were caught by the network of baited drumlines and nets running between the Gold Coast and Cairns.

The point I'm making here is why the fark do these points never get raised by the Media etc when it comes to WA , just like the daylight savings, has been happening in Australia since 1917 and again in 1942......!!!!

I'm not posting about if its right or wrong to cull sharks it's more about how it can happen everywhere else but because 66 get hooked in WA ocean life is coming to an end..........and yes now that we have got rid of daylight savings my curtains will never fade.........., if I were the media or a politician I would be embarrassed on how narrow minded and miss represented they come across as........oh and one last thing .........pick a side when you write an article, debate both sides but at least have the balls to have an opinion as long as you correctly represent both arrangements fairly there shouldn't be a problem.......!!!!

+1 for some perspective

quite right - we do appear to be whingeing BUT as with so many things after the initial shock and horror, we tend to lose interest and move on, which is why it IS important to nip this in the bud before we become complacent. (which is probably what happened in QLD)

There is a bunch of research on deterring sharks (even a quick google search would help) but I don't see any reference to it. I find it sad that we implement a method that snares juvenile sharks (we don't want), and when we place extra lines in a spot we know has a LARGE shark we get nothing but we continue because ??? (p.s it's not working)

I have been wondering whether Pollies have a mandate to make the crappy decision they do, and therefore I am in the minority and should just shut up and accept it, or whether they believe they are the leaders and can therefore make any decision and we will all follow. What happened to the correct term public servants?

Maybe we should cancel voting for different parties as they don't really differ much anyway and they change their policies, so you don't really know what you voted for. Instead we could streamline the voting system, make it electronic and all have a say on the issues that matter.

rant over

Thought I would find the department of fisheries annual report for 2012-13, google found it first up.

www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/annual_reports/annual_report_2012-13.pdf

some interesting facts, 720 TONNES of sharks caught in 2011/12




and the cost of the patrols




a few million !

Not sure what the difference is than what you buy form your local fish and chips shop, the majority is flake served.
Fishermen have been catching and processing sharks for years using 4km long nets, the only difference now with 'THE CULL' is they are not utilizing the catch and they are fishing for bigger sharks....what small sharks don't matter as much??????
I dont really agree with this kind of rape style net fishing but not sure what all the hoo-har is all about all of a sudden with drum lining.
By the way I love eating fresh Bronzie... who doesent??

Select to expand quote

hardpole said..

Thought I would find the department of fisheries annual report for 2012-13, google found it first up.

www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/annual_reports/annual_report_2012-13.pdf

some interesting facts, 720 TONNES of sharks caught in 2011/12

It's no secret that the commericals target sharks for food. Rec fishos also kill thousands of sharks each year. The majority of the sharks caught by commerical fishers are lower trophic level predators or scavengers, with typically shorter life cycles than tigers and great whites. These species are less susceptible to overfishing, and their removal has less impact on the food web.

Many rec fishos do keep relatively large bronze whalers, tigers etc, which they are more than entitled to (although they must be under 700mm interdorsal length in the west coast region), however, in my experience many of these guys are typically bogans with no clue/ regard for the marine environment and sustainability of our fisheries.

The issue I have with the 'shark culling' is that it's a pointless waste of money, which is unlikely to make anyone any safer. I think they've killed about 30 sharks so far if I remember correctly? That isn't going to end the world, but it is a complete and utter waste, of not only resources to catch the sharks, but of the sharks themselves which were just destroyed.

I also think the greenies and the random protesters need to settle down. I went to the latest anti-shark rally at cott, just for a look and too hear what the clowns were going on about. One so called expert in marine life claimed that without sharks there would be no oxygen. If these people did something useful with their time instead of making up bull**** propaganda, then maybe they'll be able to actually conserve our marine life.

In summary - the drumlines aren't going to end the world as the greenies are making out, but it is a bloody waste, unlikely to prevent any attacks from great whites, and there are better alternatives that the government could have used to try and prevent shark attacks.

Just to show you guys, these are the estimated recreational catches of sharks in Western Australia during 2011-12 by recreational boat fishers.



Source: Ryan KL, Wise BS, Hall NG, Pollock KH, Sulin EH, Gaughan DJ (2013). An integrated system to survey boat-based recreational fishing in Western Australia 2011/12. Fisheries Research Report No. 249, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia. 168pp.

As you can see rec fishos on boats caught around 2,800 bronze whalers, 500 hammerheads and 300 tigers. From my experience, a lot of rec fishos target large sharks from shore, so the total numbers caught by all recs would be considerably higher than this. I have no doubt that the vast majority of kept sharks were eaten, but there are far more sustainable alternatives to eating these large predatory species.

However, all these bloody greenies/ idiot protesters with no clue, who are suddenly up in arms about the capture of 66 sharks, really do need to settle down a bit.

Looking at this research you guys posted, opened my eyes!

Sea Sheppard should really be protesting right here in our own waters against this gross raping of the oceans. Stuff the Japs. Let em have a few Minki Whales. Compared to the level of killing we're doing, we're the ones that should be monitored.