Sea Shepherd would like to congratulate the Western Australian Government under the leadership of Premier Colin Barnett for the continued pursuit of trying to help make WA’s beaches safer.
Many of Sea Shepherd supporters are divers, triathletes, surfers, swimmers, kite boarders and just general ocean loving people.
However, in regard to the following story in the West Australian today, with the headline ‘Shark Nets for 22 WA beaches’, are concerning number of factors has arisen.
“In regards to effectiveness, the Dunsborough net trapped and killed marine life and it also had huge holes in it, that a person or large shark could easily swim through.
“Nets have been in place on the east coast since 1962 and they have provided a false sense of security that has merely killed thousands of marine life like whales, dolphins, turtles and dugongs. Many of the sharks caught are on the beach side, on their way back out to sea,” Jeff Hansen, Managing Director of Sea Shepherd Australia, said.
“There are much better alternatives to nets out there that don’t trap and kill marine life, yet still do the job of a barrier, but are far more effective and the great news is, that they are more cost effective, which is great news for the tax payer. For example, in the article above it states a shark proof net would cost around $325,000 for 3 years.
“Now in comparison, barriers like the Eco Shark Barrier that was trailed in Coogee between December 2013 and April 2014 by the City of Cockburn, could be installed and maintained for up to one fifth of the cost, which is a huge saving to the WA taxpayer,” Mr Hansen said.
“Sea Shepherd is urging the WA Government to rethink its strategy of using 1962 methods like nets and look towards more robust and cost effective alternatives from 2014 like barrier type solutions,” Mr Hansen concluded.
Story & Image Source: Sea Shepherd Australia
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
