A few days ago, there was another fatal shark attack of the coast of Western Australia. That makes 24 across the country in the last 20 years. People of Australia, please panic!
24 hours after it happened – and, thus, many hours after the shark in question had moved on with his life – some representatives from the WA fisheries armed themselves and went hunting. What were they hunting exactly? Well, considering the time difference and the high possibility that the responsible shark wasn’t hanging around the area wearing a t-shirt that says “I killed the guy”, presumably anything even remotely resembling a shark.
Great idea.
The WA government issued a “shoot to kill” order on great whites and there are to be daily aerial patrols around the Rottnest Island area. I hope there will also be daily aerial patrols of the Mitchell Freeway and a shoot to kill order on anyone who speeds. That might prevent the number of road fatalities in Perth every year, which well outnumber the shark attacks.
Honestly, though, if the shark in question is identifiable I do think people in the know ought to try and check it out. A shark doesn’t attack for no reason – I imagine it is probably ill or injured and frightened. The “people in the know”, however, are most certainly not a group of blokes on a boat with guns. And it needs to be done immediately or not done at all, otherwise there is hardly any chance of finding the right shark.
People in Perth like the beach; the beach brings in tourism and money; a shark attacks and people worry – the government clearly knows this. I can think of no other reason they would decide to cull the shark population. This should not be about politics, this is a living being. The state government should go spend its time and money on something worthwhile.
Psych Babbler
October 26, 2011
I’m torn on this one I must admit. Given that I love the water, sharks freak me out. At the same time, I do understand it’s technically their territory and we are the ones going in there. But when you present the stats about the number of shark attacks, it puts things into perspective about how we are all probably over-reacting.
kirbyakasid
October 26, 2011
Sharks freak a lot of people out, but does that make it ok to randomly kill them? As my niece said on FB yesterday, people know the risks when they go into the ocean.