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.