A White Shark biting fish heads used to draw the shark in. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
There has been much controversy surrounding Western Australia’s shark cull with people being vocally opposed to the action taken by the state government. This implementation of the drum line has even attracted the attention of conservationist group Sea Shepherd. Is this an overreaction by the state government, or are they really giving the Western Australian population what they want?
I decided to conduct a little survey of my own covering both surfers and non-surfers. Well, it started out as a little survey and as I got further in, I realized I needed a broader perspective however the more people I surveyed. I realized I was getting no clear result. Peoples’ opinions were split almost perfectly and the individuals’ standpoint was almost impossible to predict. I found it almost shocking to hear people I was certain would say that we have no business killing sharks make a comment like, “Well, what happens when a dog kills a human?” and fishermen say, “We are in their territory, we know the risks.”
Although the results of the For vs Against arguments were almost impossible to split in favor one way or the other, one thread became abundantly clear: people in Western Australia feel there is an undue amount of attention on the issue. A line I heard again and again was, “Why is the east coast and the rest of the world protesting the Western Australian drum lines and not the others?”
New South Wales started netting beaches in 1937 which have a significant bycatch of sea creatures aside from those that will take a large baited hook. Queensland set up a drum line program in 1962 killing an estimated 500 sharks each year. However, when Western Australia’s program started, protests were held against the W.A. lines at east coast beaches, some of which were ironically located directly in front of drum lines and nets. Similar programs are in place in South Africa, New Zealand and other countries. Is it simply that some of these programs have been in play for so long that people are not aware of their existence and the sheer number of sharks they are destroying each year, or is the media creating a bandwagon mentality in order to have some controversy to report on?
I am in no way saying that the measures taken are proven to be effective or in any way ethical, but it seems only fair to protest all forms of this shark control rather than just one state. No doubt the government was under considerable pressure to act in some way after a string of fatal attacks, and it seems it has simply looked at what the rest of the country was doing and copied that.
More and more sharks are sighted close to beaches though out the world no doubt due to the growing demands on the ocean through overfishing and pollution, but a contributing factor to this in Western Australian waters is we are looking harder for them. When I grew up there, we relied on the lifeguards in the handful of towers along a 50km stretch to spot a threat. Naturally, they didn’t find much to be alarmed about. Now that there are helicopters and spotter planes patrolling daily, it seems only reasonable that when you are trying hard to look for something, you will find it.
The drum line and its existence will no doubt be challenged in Parliament, and its fate remains to be seen and in the meantime, the state government is shifting liability by “doing something.” In reality, a shark attack is statistically the least likely thing that will kill you. Most of us feel that the odds of being killed by a vending machine would be absurd, however between 10 and 13 people are killed by them every year (more than sharks) not to mention the damage done by the products purchased from these machines. It seems that most people spend their lives worried about the wrong things.
