Western Australia Shark Culling, stopping baited drum lines.

After strong recommendations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and two petitions of 25000 signatures (Dalzell, 2014), drum lines deployment for this summer will not happen.

Since 2010, there were 7 fatal attacks by sharks in Western Australia. In view of this, the state government has introduced "localised shark mitigation strategy" whereby any sharks longer than 3 metres caught, will be killed (Reed & Le Page, 2014)


In 2014, Western Australia government has launched a 13 weeks trail from January to April. Baited drum lines were set off on Perth and South West beaches to trap sharks which comes close to the shore. The trail period killed 68 sharks and cost the government over $1.3million. (Dalzell, 2014)

 Photo by: Andy Corbe

 Photo by: Channel 7

Shark culling is not limited to Western Australia only. Other parts of Australia and South Africa have a tradition of shark culling to protect beach goers and their tourism industry. Sharks are apex predators important to the marine ecosystem. However, the shark populations especially the great whites are in threat of extinction.

Should shark culling still exist today? Instead of killing sharks, Gibbs and Warren (2014) suggests that the government should educate the public about sharks, encourage ocean users to accept the risks and increase the warning systems to warm on sit beach users.

Literature Cited

Dalzell, S. (2014). WA shark cull: Drum lines dumped after EPA recommendations.   Retrieved 28 September, 2014, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-11/wa-dumps-shark-drum-lines-after-epa-review/5737526

              

Gibbs, L. M., & Warren, A. T. (2014). WA shark cull season ends, and ocean users don’t want it to return.  

Reed, C., & Le Page, M. (2014). Biting back. New Scientist, 222(2975), 44-45.          

Eco-Friendly Diapers, courtesy of jellyfishes

Jellyfish is one of the few marine organisms which thrives in warm oceans and the blooming of such organism can spell serious problems. For instance, jellyfish are known to clog up pipes. (Ishii, 2001) In 2011, Israeli, Scotland and Japan were forced to shut down due to jellyfish blooms. (Schrope, 2012)

Diapers are another problem by itself. Diapers are filling up landfills quickly, due to its high demand and poor biodegradability.

Cine'al ltd, an Israeli nanotechnology company, is developing technology to make jellyfish into super absorbent products such as diapers, tampons, medical sponges or even paper towels. By adding nano-materials into jellyfish flesh, it becomes a super absorbent material. And here's the best part: It biodegrades readily.

I think this might give us insight on how important marine biodiversity are. The possibilities are endless and it is said that 95% of the marine species has yet to be discovered.



From this

Photo credit: Reuters, Dauphin Island Sea Lab

To this

Photo credit: Pampers

Literature cited

Ishii, H. (2001). The influence of environmental changes upon the coastal plankton ecosystems, with special reference to mass occurrence of jellyfish. Bulletin of Plankton Society of Japan (Japan).

Schrope, M. (2012). Marine ecology: Attack of the blobs. Nature; Physical Science (London), 482(7383), 20-21.

The magic of blue blood

Limulus polyphemus, commonly known to us as Horseshoe crab, have an unique quality which humans are now exploiting. Blue blood.



Yes, it's magical. The blue blood of horseshoe crabs has anti-bacterial properties which is beneficial to us. It's actually already present in our vaccines and other medications to prevent contamination from bacteria.

Note how the video states that there is a 10% increase in mortality rate for bled horseshoe crabs. Research has shown that bled horseshoe crabs have an approximate 8-11% increase in mortality rate  after being released back into the wild. (Rudloe, 1983) (Walls & Berkson) Putting that into human perspective, the mortality rate is just slightly lower than cancer in humans which is 12%.

In addition, medical hope is not the only thing horseshoe crabs offer us. Many fisherman use horseshoe crabs as fish bait while some countries harvest horseshoe crabs for consumption. The question posed to man now is, "How sustainable is this?"

Literature cited

Rudloe, A. (1983). The effect of heavy bleeding on mortality of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, in the natural environment. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, Pages 167–176.

Walls, E. A., & Berkson, J. (n.d.). Effects of blood extraction of horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus).