14 DAY TRIAL // This Wednesday, green group Sea Shepherd announced that it had challenged Western Australia's shark cull in court, and that it was looking to get an injunction against it.
As previously reported, Western Australia has decided to set in place as many as 72 drum lines and kill sharks that come too close to its shoreline in an attempt to reduce the number of people attacked or killed by such animals in its waters.
The animals that the ongoing cull targets are bull, tiger, and great white sharks measuring more than 3 meters (9.8 feet) in length.
Although high officials in Western Australia maintain that the animals are killed in a humane way, i.e. they are shot and then their bodies are thrown back into the sea, there are many who do not approve of the cull.
Sea Shepherd members and supporters argue that, because these species are currently threatened with extinction, Western Australia has no business killing them.
What's more, the conservationists maintain that, by moving forward with this slaughter, the state is acting unlawfully, ABC News tells us.
“Sea Shepherd Australia believes that the tender process was unlawful, that the WA state government has been acting unlawfully, that the taking and killing of protected animals was illegal,” the organization explains is a press release.
“The law contemplates some sort of process being in place to protect these protected animals and that process has been scotched,” it adds.
These are the arguments that Sea Shepherd expects will help convince the Supreme Court to issue an injunction and thus put an end to the killing of sharks swimming in Western Australia's waters.
Interestingly enough, the organization is not working alone. On the contrary, its attempt to get the Supreme Court to halt the ongoing shark cull has the support of a woman named Sharon Burden.
Sharon's son, Kyle, died back in 2011 after being attacked by a shark while boogie boarding. Despite this tragic loss, the woman does not approve of the cull, and wants to see it stopped.
Talking to the press, the current Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, said that he expected the cull to be challenged in court at some point. He also stressed that, to his knowledge, the killing of sharks in local waters was in accordance with the law.
“We are very confident that everything that has been done has been done properly,” the politician said in a recent interview.
“I understand and respect that people might oppose this policy but it is to protect beachgoers, surfers, beachgoers and it is to restore some balance I guess within the marine environment,” he added.