WATCH: First shark culled as part of new Australian policy to curb attacks. Government officials defend the policy
Great white, tiger and bull sharks are the target of a cull off the coast of southwestern Australia, after the federal government allowed an exemption under the county’s environment act.
But a Canadian shark expert calls the cull “ill-advised” and said such efforts are often found to be “very ineffective” in preventing attacks on humans.
Australian environment minister Greg Hunt allowed the state of Western Australia to conduct a cull near popular beaches in the wake of a number of deadly shark attacks in the past few years — the most recent being a surfer killed in Nov. 2013.
A Western Australia government spokesperson confirmed Monday fisherman caught and killed a three-metre long, female tiger shark on Sunday, just a day after hook-laden lines were set up in the ocean.
The Australian Associated Press reported the shark was caught a kilometre off Meelup Beach — about 250 kilometres south of Perth — and “was shot four times in the head, dragged out to sea and dumped.”
Can a cull prevent shark attacks?
Dr. Steve Campana, head of the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory and a senior scientist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, said other countries have attempted similar culls with limited success.
“The problem has largely been one that the sharks that they are trying to cull, such as tigers and great whites in particular, tend to be very wide-ranging,” Campana said in phone interview from Halifax.
“We know from satellite tagging that some of the great whites that have been tagged in different parts of the world, including Australian waters, can swim thousands of kilometres in a matter of months,” he explained.
READ MORE: Great white shark tracked from Florida to Newfoundland
He added some great whites have reportedly swam more than 10,000 kilometres in less than a year.
For that reason, a cull may only provide a short-term fix because ocean currents and water temperatures change each year.
“What this means, with that type of wide-ranging movement patterns, culling the sharks in a particular area simply reduces the number that are there at the time and within a matter of days or weeks or months, other sharks will have moved in to take their place,” he said.
The kill and the method used to carry out the cull — baited drum lines with hooks placed off beaches around Perth and further down the coast — are under heavy criticism from environmentalists and activists.
“How can we condemn Japan for the indiscriminate killing of whales and dolphins, and do this to our precious protected marine life here in Australia?” Sea Shepherd Australia managing director Jeff Hansen told the Australian Associated Press.”This method is utterly cruel and inhumane and these animals can take many hours to die.”
Campana said it’s much easier to support other methods of shark control, such as the nets used in other parts of Australia, to keep the predators out of swimming areas.
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In allowing Western Australia an exemption under Australia’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and permitting the state to kill the vulnerable great white sharks, Environment Minister Greg Hunt said it was in “national interest.”
Only sharks more than three-metres in length will be killed, while smaller ones will be released.
“One does not have to agree with a policy to accept that a national interest exemption is warranted to protect against imminent threat to life, economic damage and public safety more generally,” Hunt wrote in a letter to Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett, dated Jan. 10.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hunt’s decision was only made public on Jan. 21. Hunt acknowledged “individuals must take responsibility for their own water safety both as a matter of culture and practice.”
Swimming with sharks
Campana said Australia has “a high abundance of species that are responsible for most shark attacks around the world.”
But that doesn’t mean attacks are as common as many people fear, he reaffirmed.
He said in Canadian waters, particularly along the Atlantic coast, on any given day there are sharks in the waters around swimmers that go completely unnoticed.
“There’s no need for concern because the sharks have no interest in the people,” he said. “Even if it’s one of the so-called dangerous species, in many cases it still will ignore the people.”
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