The Western Australian government has denied it uses scientific tagging data to label sharks as a ‘serious threat’ after a private shark researcher said he was considering withholding information about sharks he had tagged to prevent them getting caught in a cull, The Guardian reports.
Andrew
Fox, who tags great white sharks in South Australia for the Fox Shark Research
Foundation, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday he was reconsidering sharing
data that would allow the WA Department of Fisheries to track sharks he had
tagged after a kill order was issued for a tagged shark in December.
But
the department’s executive director of research, Dr Rick Fletcher, told
Guardian Australia it was “misinformed” to suggest that scientific tagging data
would be used to make culling decisions.
“The
government’s serious threat policy is very clear about the circumstances under
which an order to take a shark will be issued, including a rigorous assessment
process and a number of factors to be considered,” he said. “Claims that
detections of tagged sharks will be used as a sole trigger to capture sharks
are misinformed.”
The
WA Greens MP Lynn MacLaren said Fletcher’s comments contradict an order he gave
in December to catch and kill a female great white shark at Warnbro Sound, 55km
south of Perth.
“Dr
Fletcher has ignored the fact that before Christmas he ordered a hunt-to-kill
of a tagged female white shark whose presence was only known about because she
had been detected multiple times by Fisheries’ acoustic receiver in Warnbro
Sound,” MacLaren said.
“At
no point was there any suggestion that any member of the public had even seen
the tagged shark, let alone there being any evidence that she was posing a
threat to humans.
“It
is well-established by Dr Fletcher’s own department that snapper spawn in
Cockburn and Warnbro sound at this time of year and it is most likely that
natural food source was the reason why the shark remained in the area over a
matter of weeks.”
In a
statement about the capture order, issued by Fisheries on19 December, Fletcher
said capture gear was deployed in response to, “an increase in the number of
day-time detections on consecutive during the leadup to Christmas”.
A
second statement, on 20 December, said: “Department of Fisheries acting
director general Dr Rick Fletcher said the shark has been detected again this
morning close to beaches at Warnbro and capture gear will therefore be set this
morning.”
The
serious threat policy says, “A capture order can be issued following a shark
attack or, in the absence of an attack having taken place, multiple confirmed
sightings or detections of a high hazard shark/s or sharks, in a location over
a number of days, may still be considered to pose a serious threat in
circumstances where there is considered to be a high risk.”
High-risk
situations are described as the shark being within 1km of the coast and near
well-used beaches. The policy also requires Fisheries to take environmental
factors that may attract sharks into account.
MacLaren
said she had referred the serious threat policy, which she described as a
broadening of the previous imminent threat policy, to the Environmental
Protection Authority for assessment. She said the policy was “light on detail”
and had been “freely cited to justify killing, or attempting to kill, tagged
sharks”.
“It
is clear that far more individuals of south-western Australia’s white shark
population could be killed under the new policy than the three-year drumline
program proposed by the Barnett government last year, which was ultimately
rejected by both the EPA and CSIRO on the grounds it was likely to endanger the
white shark population.”
Guardian
Australia asked Fisheries to clarify whether there had been any sightings of
the Warnbro Sound shark. Bruno Mezzatesta, executive director of regional
services, provided this response: “The decision on this occasion was based on
multiple detections over several days and other factors as outlined in the
department’s media alert issued on 19 December, noting numerous mitigation
strategies were implemented in an attempt to negate the threat before the
decision was made.
“A
detection is a highly verifiable indication of the presence of a high hazard
shark in high risk circumstances.”
Read the article HERE.
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