12 THE ADVOCATE
ENVIRONMENT
Marine conservationists want ‘nets out now’ for our humpbacks
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Australian Marine Conservation Society
odernising beach safety and moving to non-lethal shark control in Queensland is affordable and supports local industry, reveals a new report by a coalition of concerned stakeholders including Humane Society International (HSI) and Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS). The Queensland Shark Control Program Modernisation Proposal and Cost Estimate, investigated the funding required for non-lethal solutions outlined in the Cardno Review of Alternative Approaches report commissioned by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) last year. Non-lethal, modern solutions considered in the cost estimate include drones, new barrier technologies, and education. Using costs provided by the Australian contractors and businesses named in QDAF’s report, the estimated annual operating cost of non-lethal shark control throughout Queensland is $4.16 million. This is cheaper than the current amount of $17.1 million over four years proposed by Minister Furner in June 2019. “This report demonstrates how easily Queensland could update their program to keep swimmers and marine wildlife safe,” Lawrence Chlebeck, marine biologist with HSI said. “There’s been 60 years of progress in our understanding of shark behaviour and technology, and it’s long past time for a change.” “Shark culling does not reduce the risk of shark bite. It’s been independently proven by shark researchers and in legal proceedings. If human safety is truly Queensland’s first priority, then they will heed the science and begin modernising this program immediately.” Dr Leonardo Guida, Shark Scientist with AMCS said: “The only thing the current program does well is take a terrible toll on marine wildlife. Just this year we’ve seen six humpbacks get caught, and a dugong wash up on a beach dead after drowning in a shark net. Since 2001, thousands of animals have died including dolphins, turtles, rays, and all for a false sense of security,” Dr Guida said. Last year, HSI challenged the lethal Queensland Shark Control Program in the Great Barrier Reef in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and won, with the Tribunal declaring the program “unscientific” and out of step with current national and international developments. The Tribunal also stated that there was overwhelming evidence that shark culling does not reduce the risk of shark bite.
Why do we still use shark nets SARAH JACOB
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hark nets are not fit-for-purpose. They do not protect swimmers and kill hundreds of other marine animals, including threatened species. So why do we still deploy them in Australia, and what other technologies should we be using instead? Sarah Jacob asks the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s shark scientist, Leonardo Guida. The statistics coming out of shark control programs are quite worrying from a conservation standpoint, with more than 60% of species caught in NSW being threatened species. How do the two main lethal techniques – shark nets and drumlines – compare, and what kinds of non-target animals are captured? A drumline is a baited fishing hook. In Queensland the shark nets are about 186 metres wide and 4-6 metres in depth. So they don’t stretch to the length of the entire beach. Nets are essentially invisible in the water and will capture almost anything that hits it. There’s a greater degree of bycatch. What that means is that you’re not only catching sharks but you’re also catching turtles, dolphins, dugongs, and as we’ve seen in Queensland recently, whales as well. In NSW in particular, they are a [sting] ray killing machine. There are hundreds of rays that are caught every year, more so than other animals. Drumlines still catch turtles and that bite the bait, but generally the variety of animals is much less than for nets. How do SMART drumlines work? The Shark Management Alert in Real Time (SMART) drumline is a piece of technology that’s linked up to a satellite. If a shark or any other animal bites that hook it will pull a trigger, and that sends a
As Australian humpback whales start to migrate south from North Queensland to Antarctica signal to a satellite which is beamed back to Fisheries offices, then they head out to the drumline, and release the animal with a tag. Why are tagging programs important? The benefit of shark tagging programs is that we get this wealth of information that can tell us how sharks move, where they go, why they move. This translates into resources that not only help us manage our fisheries, and our interactions with sharks, but also to communicate to the public about certain conditions where the [likelihood of] presence of sharks might be higher than normal. Then people can make informed decisions about whether they want to go into the water at that time.
A 2017 study of public perceptions of shark nets at Sydney beaches found that there was strong support for shark nets but much less support for direct culling measures like hunting of sharks. It was suggested by the authors that the reason for this is that public education is lacking. How important is public education on this issue? There seems to be this perception that shark nets are a barrier, and they’re not. There’s a perception that a shark net extends from surface to bottom, that it extends across the whole beach and no shark can get through. But sharks can swim around, under and over the net. One study that found 40% of sharks caught in nets
Top End Turtle Nesting Beach Trashed by GEORGIA FRANC
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emonstrating what can be achieved when you unite to protect the oceans and marine life, Sea Shepherd and the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation of Northeast Arnhem Land, have again joined forces for a remote beach cleanup campaign at Djulpan in the Northern Territory. Around 2.5 hours from the nearest town, Djulpan is culturally significant for the Yolgnu people but tragically this isolated and beautiful stretch of coastline is inundated by marine plastic pollution. This area along the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria is also an important nesting ground for six of the seven species of marine turtles which are listed as either
endangered or vulnerable. When the Sea Shepherd crew and Rangers returned to Djulpan for the second year, they were more determined than ever to free the sacred shoreline of Djulpan of trash. Despite the heat and long days together they removed 12.1 tonnes of debris including consumer plastics and large fishing nets from 8.5 kilometres of beach. This surpassed the previous year’s achievement of 7.1 tonnes from 4 kilometre of beach. Liza Dicks, Arnhem Campaign Leader said the volume and density of debris was still a shock to the 11 experienced Sea Shepherd volunteers, many of whom had returned to Djulpan for a
second time. Most surprising to the team on the first day was the astonishing sight of Djulpan covered with dozens and dozens of turtle tracks and nests. Seeing so many turtle nests on the areas of Djulpan cleaned last year demonstrates that beach clean-ups make a direct difference for marine life. Their clean-ups have one goal – to remove as much plastic pollution as possible to give immediate relief to the area’s marine life. Sadly, whilst cleaning up the beach the crew came across a number of turtles that had died as a result of debris including turtle hatchlings trapped in plastic
