14 DAY TRIAL // By now, it is no news that members and supporters of environmental group Sea Shepherd are no fans of Western Australia's ongoing shark cull. Thus, these greenheads maintain that this initiative is bound to upset marine ecosystems, and that it should be put an end to immediately.
Seeing how the chances that high officials in Australia will listen to its complaints and stop the killings are pretty much slim to none, the organization is now trying to at least convince them to do some more damage control.
More precisely, Sea Shepherd says that both the state's government and Environment Minister Greg Hunt must see to it that the undersized sharks that Western Australia does not wish to kill but that get caught in drum lines nonetheless are better taken care of before being released back into the water.
According to Sea Shepherd, the people who are in charge of inspecting the state's drum lines on a regular basis too often simply dump back into the ocean the undersized sharks that they are not supposed to shoot dead, without bothering to check how the animals are feeling.
Due to the fact that after spending quite a while caught in a drum line these animals are stressed, probably even injured, their chances at survival when simply released back into the water are not all that great, the organization explains.
Sea Shepherd recommends that, before being allowed to go their way, these sharks be placed in tanks and allowed to swim around for a while, at least until they come to terms with the experience they have just been thrown and are able to carry on.
“Currently the drum line initiative is overwhelmingly capturing undersized tiger sharks, which are then being dumped injured and stressed without giving the shark maximum chances of survival. Shark experts have agreed that if the sharks are given the opportunity to swim after being caught, then their chances of survival are increased,” Jeff Hansen with Sea Shepherd Australia said in a statement.
Sea Shepherd says that, since the cull began until present day, over 100 tiger sharks have been caught in drum lines set in place close to Western Australia's shoreline. Of these animals, 70% were undersized and had to be released.
As previously reported, Western Australia's shark killing initiative began on January 25 and is expected to come to an end on the last day of this year's April. The cull is intended to make the state's waters a tad more swimmer- and surfer-friendly by killing sharks measuring more than 3 meters (9.8 feet) that venture too close to shore.