Greetings everyone. The past nearly 24 hours has been extremely busy for me over here. Last night I saw a pretty big rumor swirling around that I will be talking about in my second blog of the evening. As expected, the end of April brought about the end of the West Australia Shark Cull. While I do not have the final numbers for the cull yet, I can give you all a rough idea as to just how big this cull was based on the numbers that came out in mid March. Keep in mind that this cull was designed to catch and kill great whites, bull sharks, and tiger sharks that were 3 or meters in length.
As of mid march...
105 tiger sharks caught
2 shortfin mako
1 spinner shark
1 dusky whaler
1 unidentified species
0 bull sharks
0 great white sharks
While I can not confirm any final numbers, I can tell you all that the number of great whites killed in this cull was 0. Not a single one. The shark that the West Australian Government desperately wanted to catch and destroy avoided the drumlines throughout the duration of the cull. Oddly enough, the bull sharks did as well. Tiger sharks however were by far the most common shark caught. For some reason the W.A. government placed these sharks on the target list despite tiger sharks not being cited for a shark attack in W.A. in over 40 years. While the cull has ended for now, the W.A. government is seeking a 3 year extension of the program which would again see the drumlines in place next year. This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Zero studies were done as to the populations of these animals prior to the cull starting, zero thought was put into what kind of environmental impacts this cull could have, zero care was taken in releasing undersized sharks so that they could grow and mature, and despite what the government may say, zero thought was taken into the safety of the bathers off the beaches in West Australia.
As I've mentioned time and time again, a huge part as to why this cull happened was to create safer beaches. In reality all that the cull did was kill a shark and bring in another. It's not like the beaches were any safer. In fact all the blood in the water from all of the hooked sharks time and time again could, and did, attract larger sharks to the area. Whenever a major swimming or surfing event took place, the drumlines were for some reason removed. Why remove them if they were making those swimmers safer? The W.A. government knows its not making the beaches safer. They wanted to catch the great whites to make it look like they were doing something great for the tourists and locals who live and visit there. Instead all they did was slaughter a species of shark that has minded it's own business for the last 40+ years. They did not get their trophy yet they have the nerve to call this cull a success. The only success this cull had was the killing of a misunderstood species of shark while trying to kill another misunderstood species of shark. The W.A. government proved to the world that they truly have no knowledge on sharks in general let alone just how common different species of sharks are in the area. If this cull does pick up again later this year or next, I will again be doing all I can to bring you guys photos, opinions, and the truth as to why this cull happens. The W.A. government may call this a victory, but in reality it was the great whites that scored the victory as they proved to not be nearly as common or ruthless around West Australia as the government claimed them to be.
So where does the shark portion of Operation Bleeding Seas II go from here? The answer is simple. Sharks are the number one thing on this blog. Always have been, always will be. So I will be bringing you guys my thoughts on shark news throughout the spring/summer as well as some educational blogs that I've assembled to help educate anyone on these animals that may have a budding interest. Stay tuned later tonight for a major announcement regarding the future of the rest of this operation!
