Select to expand quote
jbshack said.. MickPC said..
I'm a bit short on time today, so I will try & address points made some time over the weekend.
I'll just let you ponder this;
A logical assumption is an assumption that follows sound logic and supporting evidence. It also acknowledges that variables which may make the assumption false do not exist.
This is what scientists used to protect great whites.
JB you said, "i haven't made the simple assumption that they are in over populated numbers and when i research i find that everyone who is anyone really says numbers can not have breed up to be a problem, not even close, many still believe that numbers are still critically low to sustain a healthy breeding diversity".
I will let you think about that statement in that you mention your research & current numbers not yet coming close to being a problem...I guess I can make the simple assumption your "research" is regurgitating information obtained from people of like mind. That's cool, I prefer to do some thinking for myself based on what I have seen, read & heard from a variety of sources...but what concerns me is you say you feel numbers have not yet reached a level of concern.
Why are we seeing more great whites attacking boats & hanging closer to shore? Firstly coz there are more of them, even you yourself admit this & so do the almighty scientists who need to conduct more research coz after all this time they still know so little about great whites. And I don't disagree more research needs to be done. However this does not mean we can not have a system in place to act more swiftly in the event of attack without red tape hampering operations.
There was a global protection of great whites. Shark tourism needs to be shut down globally as this is associating humans with food. People need to stop throwing stuff off boats, however this is incredibly hard to stop. And what about people researching sharks? They're chumming up the water to attract sharks in order to tag sharks or test stuff. Very difficult situation there isn't it. Surfboard floating in the water with electronic devices being tested to see if they fark the sharks off. I'm very reluctant to even bring it up as I see it as far more beneficial than any other study I've heard about...
I've always said I don't support a cull. I just want great white sharks taken off the protected list in order to enable quicker reaction of response & prevention of attacks. As I feel numbers are way past being a problem, that for me is supported by factual statistics of recent scientific data.
Its so simple, there is no supportive evidence of more Great White sharks in population numbers..All there is supportive evidence that more Great White sharks are being seen close to shore. There not the same thing..More likely the answer will be something like Great White sharks have moved closer to shore because thats were their food source has moved..
Hypothetically Thats like saying theres 10 surfers per square km of land in Scarborough. SO if you multiple that number of surfers by each square km in Australia thats the total number of surfer population.
Whether they are inshore or offshore is not the point when talking numbers of great whites. If a species of fish was protected due to logical assumption considering it to be endangered. A huge increase in sightings be it inshore or offshore nullifies that assumption making it no longer valid & therefore changes made by the previous logical assumption need to be revised
If the great white species is more concentrated in the Perth metro area giving off the false impression of a huge resurgence in great white numbers from the few tagged sharks & tagged shark receivers, then that should make it easier to protect them. If they are no longer protected & fishing regulations specifying what is & what is not allowed has been put in its place, it will be easier to administer the regulations. As unlikely as this is in regard to great white sharks being concentrated in the Perth metro area, a very small portion of the Southern to Mid Western ocean of Western Australia.
The ocean's vast & a lot of this tagging/tracking is being done within the metro area which is a very small slice in consideration of the WA coast, yet alone our vast Southern Ocean's. If sharks were running away from boats in the past & now attracted by them, we're probably getting a much better idea of what is around locally. And you only really hear of the local stories don't you. You don't hear about people being killed & injured overseas most of the time.
We're never going to know how many there are from scientific studies, not in our lifetime, the job is just way too big...unless you have heard of global sonar station being developed with the ability to identify & count great white sharks.
So for me it comes down to how many great whites do we need to make the logical assumption they are no longer endangered & therefore, no longer in need of protection. Coz this is the best we have to go on for now & was good enough in the past to help make decisions. Obviously they are breeding, there have been at least a couple of reports on new breeding zones being discovered within Australian waters in the last few years.
We need to start considering effective fishing regulations to sustain the species & reduce the frequency of attack. Prolonged protection of an apex predator is madness.
qwerty
> 9 months ago, 26 Sep 2016
