WA shark cull: Government predicts 1,000 catches in three years if policy goes ahead

Updated

The WA Government expects to bait almost 1,000 sharks over the next three years if its catch-and-kill policy gets the green light, documents released by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) have revealed.

The Government has applied for Commonwealth approval to set up 72 baited drum lines off metropolitan and South West beaches between November and April until 2017.

The EPA, which is assessing the proposed policy, today released it for public comment.

It shows nearly 900 tiger sharks and up to 25 great whites are expected to be caught over the next three years.

The documents also reveal the Department of Fisheries had raised concerns about the training of its officers in areas such as animal handling and data recording.

The Government said it would provide a comprehensive training program ahead of the summer season.

The Opposition's fisheries spokesman, Dave Kelly, said it was hard to fathom why the Government was proceeding with a policy expected to mainly catch tiger sharks.

"Nobody believes tiger sharks have been responsible for the fatal attacks that we've seen in Western Australia in recent years," he said

Mr Kelly said no money had been allocated in the WA budget for the policy and it should be abandoned.

"You've got a program that won't catch any great white sharks, we've got a budget that doesn't have any money for it," he said.

"You would have to question how can the Government say this is a well-managed, well-thought out program?

"From a public safety point of view, this program is utterly pointless.

"It's expensive, it's been poorly thought through, and it really is a case of the Premier having stuck a flag in the sand and is now too scared to admit that he got it wrong."

Greens MP Lynne MacLaren also called for the policy to be scrapped.

"We are very concerned about the impact of these drum lines, so it's really important that it's assessed now, and we hope that as many scientists as possible get a chance to go over this in details and take a careful look at whether it will impact the environment," she said.

The policy was enacted after a spate of fatal shark attacks in WA, attributed mostly to great whites, and a three-month trial period was conducted earlier this year.

During the trial, more than 170 sharks were caught on baited drum lines located off five beaches in Perth and two in the South West. None were great white sharks.

Figures from the Department of Fisheries showed 18 undersized sharks either died on the lines or were destroyed because they were considered too weak to survive.

Public submissions on the policy are open for four weeks and the EPA is expected to make its recommendations by September.

It will then be up to Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to decide whether the policy goes ahead.

Topics: shark, marine-biology, environmental-policy, environment, government-and-politics, states-and-territories, perth-6000, wa, bunbury-6230

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