14 DAY TRIAL // One would expect playing favorites to be something a high official would never do but, as it turns out, this is not always the case.
Not to beat about the bush, media reports say that Environment Minister Greg Hunt has agreed to give the thumbs up to plans to kill sharks found swimming a tad too close to Western Australia's coast, and has argued that it is in the nation's best interest that this initiative be implemented.
As reported in late December 2013, high officials in the state of Western Australia decided to carry out a shark cull after one too many people swimming in its waters were attacked and killed by such animals.
At that time, it was detailed that the state would set in place 72 drum lines, and that sharks measuring more than 3 meters (9.8 feet) that would get caught in them would be pulled out of the water and killed.
The drum lines are expected to be set in place at a distance of about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) from the shoreline, and be removed sometime in this year's April.
Conservationists were quick to point out that this cull was not exactly the best way to deal with shark attacks in the area, and even argued that the initiative went against the country's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt sorted out this problem by letting Western Australia's government have the proposed cull exempt from legislation set in place precisely to protect threatened species, The Guardian reports.
“One does not have to agree with a policy to accept that a national interest exemption is warranted to protect against imminent threat to life, economic damage and public safety more generally,” the Minister reportedly explained his decision in a letter to Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett.
As was to be expected, there are some who don't see eye to eye with the Environment Minister, and are quite convinced that the shark cull should not be carried out.
“This exemption demonstrates the complete failure of the federal government to protect our most precious species and fulfill our international environmental obligations, for the price of a policy which we do not believe will have the desired impact of reducing risk for people, which is its stated purpose.”
“HSI reiterates its calls on both Premier Barnett and Minister Hunt to end this farce of a program and instead invest in research to help better educate the public on how to reduce the risk of shark bites,” said Alexia Wellbelove with green group Humane Society International.