Due to a few instances of sharks biting people off the coast of West Australia, Liberal leader Colin Barnett has created, and plans to put into action a new plan to help make beaches in West Australia safer. This plan involves killing any shark that comes within 3 metres of the beach. The techniques that will be used include the use of hired commercial fisherman and baited lines that would be left unattended. Not only would these lines catch and effectively hold sharks until they are killed, but much like long lines, they could potentially catch other animals including large fish and possibly air breathing animals such as sea turtles and seals.
Several conservation groups have vowed to fight against this mew policy that would certainly kill species of shark, such as the great white, that are actually protected.Several conservation groups have lawyers who are currently writing to the federal environment minister Greg Hunt. They plan to find out just how legal this plan is. Humane Society International has directly appealed to Barnett about the new policy as time begins to run out for an unknown number of sharks. Thousands of people, myself included, have signed petitions online to see this plan be put to rest before it even starts. The West Australia government claims the plan will make beaches safer for bathers.
This is a load of crap frankly. First of all, the prey for these sharks (seals and fish) are not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Therefore, no matter how many sharks get killed, more will come until there are simply none left. The West Australia government has this delusional idea that if they kill off any shark for three months that that will cure the problem. In reality though, there is a problem, but it is not because of the sharks. There's a reason that there are more and more seals showing up in West Australia. It's clear to me that there are just nowhere near enough predators for these seals to worry about. Their populations are increasing largely because there is nothing out there, besides disease and other natural health issues, for them to worry about anymore. At the same time, commercial fisherman continue to scoop millions of fish out of the ocean on a daily basis. Simply put for the great whites of West Australia, there are not enough fish in the ocean anymore so they search for something else. In this case the seals swimming close to shore. I guess you can equate it to this. Say you were living somewhere where all you had to eat was one thing, say hamburgers (or veggie burgers if you don't eat meat). Now all of a sudden those burgers are gone and are not coming back. You decide it's time to move onto something else so you eat somewhere else. It's the same idea. It's not like the sharks are just prowling the coast looking for people. They come in close when they want to eat, then they return to the open ocean. As long as the food source is there, the sharks are going to keep showing up. The only real way to logically "fix this problem" is to remove all food items from the area, which is another totally insane idea that should never happen.
The bottom line is this as it is for the rest of the world. Sharks have been in the oceans for millions of years. It is their home. They are at the top of the food chain. When we surf or swim in the ocean we are putting ourselves in their homes. These animals do not know what a surfboard is. They don't even know what a human is and frankly, they have no interest in eating us. If they did, they certainly would not be biting people and then leaving them after just one bite. There would be nothing left, but as it stands, they are large animals who, just like us, make mistakes! Killing the in West Australia will do nothing but lower the already dangerously low shark populations in the area until others arrive. As far as making the beaches safer is concerned. I'll just leave it as no matter how many sharks they kill (unless they cause them to go extinct) the beach is going to remain a very safe place to be. Yes you read that right. If they eliminate every last shark in West Australia then guess what? You'll probably have bigger problems because you'll have a massive seal population that'll take over the beaches (Note: Seals can be very aggressive too). Then the next thing that'll happen is a seal cull which is also a terrible thing. Time is running out for this idea to be put to bed. I strongly suggest you get on google and look up some of these petitions and help save the innocent sharks of West Australia.
Now for my announcement. This is blog number 99 of A Voice for the Voiceless!!!! That means my next blog will be blog number 100!!!! I'll be doing something a little special for it, so keep an eye out for that either tomorrow or Thursday. The blog will not be a current events blog, possibly until the end if something major happens between then or now, such as the government of West Australia putting their stupid idea to rest. Instead, the blog will be a review of everything that I've done on this blog including some highlights from Operation Bleeding Seas, Operation Sadistic Truths, and Operation Forgotten. Thank you all for reading these blogs again and helping to make this even possible. So thank you all again and expect blog number 100 to land either tomorrow or Thursday! Till then!
