The NSW Government has done a complete backflip and is planning to waste tax payers’ money by conducting a six-month trial of 'shark' nets on the Mid North Coast, which will not reveal any helpful data, and will not reduce the risk to water users.
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It is hard to believe with all we know about sharks, including their dwindling numbers, their critical role in our oceans, and the small risk they actually pose to us, that the archaic process of killing these animals for swimmer/surfer ‘protection’ still exists. Efforts are underway to conserve our sharks and yet, amazingly, at the same time we continue to kill them on our beaches in shark nets, all in the name of 'protection'.
Eighty five thousand non-targeted species (many threatened or endangered) like turtles, grey nurse sharks, manta rays, dugongs, dolphins and whales have met an untimely death in the shark nets installed at QLD beaches since 1962.
Ironically, nets exist for psychological reasons far more than safety reasons. You are more likely to be killed by a lightning strike or a coconut fall than by a shark. Three people die on average from shark bites in Australia each year, whereas 280 people drowned last year and nearly fifty rock-fisherman have died in the last four years. Of the 170 species of sharks in Australia, the vast majority are harmless to humans.
There is no science showing that nets make our oceans safer for beach goers. In fact a 2009 government report stated that the annual rate of attack was the same. Whilst the number of shark fatalities has decreased since the nets were put in the water, this is due to improved medical assistance and not the nets – not to the nets.
I’ve seen many tiger sharks whilst scuba diving and they took no interest in me whatsoever. My brother has seen them whilst surfing and a good friend sees them from time to time on his daily ocean swim. I regularly see very large bull sharks in the Bellinger River in Fernmount. Chances are if you’re a regular ocean user you’ve been within metres of a supposedly dangerous shark, but you just didn’t know it.
- The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has invited Bellingen Shire residents to complete an online survey canvassing community views on a trial of shark nets in the area. The online survey is available on the DPI website at dpi.nsw.gov.au/sharks until 5pm, 6 November 2016. For more information see Shark net consultation with North Coast residents