Latest / The Front / Why aren’t we culling great white sharks?

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Why aren’t we culling great white sharks? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, June twenty three, twenty twenty six. The Albanese
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  Speaker 1: government put off the appointment of Antisemitism Envoy Gillian Siegel
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  Speaker 1: so an Islamic counterpart could be found. That's the claim
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  Speaker 1: made by one of Australia's most senior Jewish leaders in
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  Speaker 1: a submission to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
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  Speaker 1: A top intelligence experts work on the Bondai Beach massacre
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  Speaker 1: has effectively been dumped by Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell. Dennis Richardson,
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  Speaker 1: handpicked by Anthony Albanesi, interviewed security and police bosses, but
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Commission redid the interviews. Labour's playing musical prime
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  Speaker 1: ministers again, this time in the United Kingdom, where Kirstamer's
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  Speaker 1: time is up.
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  Speaker 2: The question my party is asking is whether I am
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  Speaker 2: best placed to lead us into the next general election.
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  Speaker 2: I have heard the answer of my Parliamentary party to
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  Speaker 2: that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.
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  Speaker 1: That's a big story rolling live at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com au, along with all our exclusive news and analysis,
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  Speaker 1: great white sharks are critically endangered? Are they really? As
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  Speaker 1: a thirty five year old mother fights for her life
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  Speaker 1: in a Sydney intensive care unit, beach goers around Australia
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  Speaker 1: are adjusting to a new reality, fatal shark attacks and
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  Speaker 1: now frequent occurrences as shark populations boom and governments hesitate
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  Speaker 1: to act. In New South Wales, a horror summer is
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  Speaker 1: being followed by a shocking winter attack. So how do
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  Speaker 1: we stay safe in the water? That's today's story.
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  Speaker 3: Thousands of swimmers today took to the water in Sydney's
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  Speaker 3: Couldjie Beach and a show of support a week after
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  Speaker 3: Mama Lias Stewart was mouled than a shocking shark attack.
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  Speaker 3: The thirty five year old was pulled from the water
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  Speaker 3: by a brave iron man competitor who paddled towards the
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  Speaker 3: thrashing great white.
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  Speaker 4: LEAs Stewart suffered critical injuries, her family saying her recovery
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  Speaker 4: will be long and difficult, came and teme.
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  Speaker 1: LOOKLYM Leeming is The Australian's New South Wales political correspondent,
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  Speaker 1: and like every other political reporter in New South Wales,
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  Speaker 1: he's had to pivot to becoming a shark expert. Lookie,
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  Speaker 1: where were you when you heard about the shark attack
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  Speaker 1: on LEAs Stewart at Culdjie Beach.
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  Speaker 3: I was at home, but I had mates down near
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  Speaker 3: the beach and almost straight away I messaged them and said,
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  Speaker 3: were you swimming? Because this is such a out of
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  Speaker 3: the ordinary attack, even according to the experts that I
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  Speaker 3: think all of Sydney was really shocked by it.
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  Speaker 1: It was really shocking. Of course, Sidney's tourism relies on
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  Speaker 1: our beaches being swimmable, and there's an ongoing debate in
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  Speaker 1: Sydney and in the other coastal city is about when
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  Speaker 1: nets are positioned, when we use drones and so on.
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  Speaker 1: That's been something that the Min's government has been grappling with.
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  Speaker 1: How has Chris Mins and his government responded to this
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  Speaker 1: near fatal attack.
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  Speaker 3: The situation with nets in New South Wales is that
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  Speaker 3: generally they're removed, they're state government administered and they're removed
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  Speaker 3: over the winter to avoid colliding with migrating whales. So
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  Speaker 3: we've seen calls for a cult, particularly led by a
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  Speaker 3: former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Chris Mins has sort of
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  Speaker 3: shied away from a color of great white sharks, citing
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  Speaker 3: their protected status. But he's left it open for a
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  Speaker 3: color of bull sharks which don't have the same protections.
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  Speaker 3: But the big thing Chris Mins, and he's actually been
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  Speaker 3: supported by the opposition leader, Kelly Sloane. Here in New
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  Speaker 3: South Wales. The big thing they're calling for is becoming
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  Speaker 3: a world leader in using drones, potentially with artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 3: capability to spot these sharks. So I think we could
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  Speaker 3: potentially as soon as this budget see renewed investment in
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  Speaker 3: the use of drones to patrol the beaches around here.
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  Speaker 1: It's like everything in state politics affected by every other
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  Speaker 1: layer of government. Right, drones are already in use at
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  Speaker 1: a lot of Sydney beaches, but not at Kujie until
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  Speaker 1: the weekend. Why not?
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  Speaker 3: This is one of the strange things about our bureaucracy.
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  Speaker 3: As it stands, the Aviation Watchdog hasn't allowed drones to
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  Speaker 3: be used at kuji because of its proximity to flight
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  Speaker 3: paths for planes coming into Sydney Airport. Now, interestingly, after
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  Speaker 3: this that was overturned within I think forty eight hours.
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  Speaker 4: So if life savers were granted special permission to launch drones,
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  Speaker 4: today due to airspace restrictions caused by nearby flight paths,
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  Speaker 4: swimmers here and at Bondai rarely benefit from these eyes
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  Speaker 4: in the sky.
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  Speaker 3: So whether that's permanent, I understand they're exploring at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: but it just goes to show you that sometimes bureaucracy
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  Speaker 3: can slow down I guess common sense measures, and that
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  Speaker 3: has never been more clear than after this shocking attack
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  Speaker 3: on a Saturday morning.
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  Speaker 1: Drones already do fly at a lot of New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales beaches. Helicopters are flying over these beaches all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and they're all in pretty close proximity. Of course, there
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  Speaker 1: is a flight path over Kuji Beach and over several
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  Speaker 1: other beaches, but any kind of low flying craft like
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  Speaker 1: a drone is not going to be anywhere near a
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  Speaker 1: commercial jetliner. It seems ridiculous to me that this band
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  Speaker 1: was in place and that nobody kicked it upstairs. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think about that?
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  Speaker 3: Definitely? I think beach goers' first responders, including elements of
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  Speaker 3: surf life saving New South Wales. We've seen how quickly
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  Speaker 3: that this has been overturned, which goes to show that
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  Speaker 3: it shouldn't have taken such a horrible incident for this
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  Speaker 3: to be kicked upstairs, as you said, we've got to
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  Speaker 3: be probably more proactive and less reactive following this spate
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  Speaker 3: of shark with an incredible spade of shark attacks over
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  Speaker 3: the summer in and around Sydney Waters, why wasn't this
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  Speaker 3: raised then.
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  Speaker 5: An outpouring of grief for a twelve year old boy
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  Speaker 5: with his whole life ahead of him. Nico Antik taken
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  Speaker 5: too soon, succumbing to his wounds today from a shark
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  Speaker 5: attack at ball Clues almost a week ago.
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  Speaker 1: Before those summer attacks, which included mercury solakis at Long
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  Speaker 1: Reef Beach on the northern Beaches of Sydney, several Sydney
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  Speaker 1: councils were going to remove the nets all together, that
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  Speaker 1: they were going to experiment with what someone would be
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  Speaker 1: like without beach knitting, and that I think was driven
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  Speaker 1: by people who are concerned about other species getting caught
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  Speaker 1: in the nets. The Government very quickly retreated on that
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  Speaker 1: once Mercury solarcis died. It felt to me like they
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  Speaker 1: were caught on the hop at the time. What was
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  Speaker 1: your sense from inside Parliament when that was going on.
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  Speaker 3: I think again this is a case of being reactive
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  Speaker 3: in face of being proactive, and we shouldn't be at
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  Speaker 3: a stage in June, halfway through the year following this
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  Speaker 3: spade of attacks where we're still being reactive. I've spoken
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  Speaker 3: to the Federal Shadow Environment Minister Andrew Bragg and he
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  Speaker 3: says he's going to write to the CSIRO now asking
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  Speaker 3: them to bring forward some great white shark research. It's
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  Speaker 3: been eight years since the CSIRO, which is our biggest
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  Speaker 3: chief science body in the country, has completed research on
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  Speaker 3: these shark numbers. So if we're relying on data that's
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  Speaker 3: eight years old and we're seeing this spade of shark attacks,
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  Speaker 3: it's obvious that we need new figures if we're going
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  Speaker 3: to update policy accordingly.
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  Speaker 1: As you said, great white sharks are a protected species.
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  Speaker 1: That was a decision made by the Commonwealth, which must
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  Speaker 1: feel nice being in the act where there's no great
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  Speaker 1: whites in late Burley Griffin to take a nivel at you.
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  Speaker 1: Why did they make the decision to protect great whites?
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  Speaker 3: Research and suggests that the population was at risk. Great
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  Speaker 3: white sharks have a long and again I'm no expert,
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  Speaker 3: but it's long time until they reach maturity and breeding age.
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  Speaker 3: They also reproduced slowly and talking to experts even recently,
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  Speaker 3: they've been protecting now for nearly thirty years, there's a
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  Speaker 3: consensus across the board that their numbers haven't recovered to
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  Speaker 3: a point where we can reconsider that listing, at least
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  Speaker 3: from the experts I've spoken to.
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  Speaker 1: That's really interesting, isn't it. But we now have a
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  Speaker 1: generation of white sharks who are mature, who've never been hunted,
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  Speaker 1: who have obviously not been fished, and who are huge.
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  Speaker 1: And this particular animal which attacked a leash stewart at
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  Speaker 1: Cujiebeach wasn't tagged, it hadn't been interacted with fisheries at all.
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  Speaker 1: So it's alarming to think that there's a number of
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  Speaker 1: white sharks out there that we don't know anything about.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, and I think that to Andrew Bragg's point,
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  Speaker 3: we need up to date data, We need more research,
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  Speaker 3: We need to use new forms of research and information
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  Speaker 3: gathering to get a better picture of how many of
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  Speaker 3: these sharks are in the country. Because experts do agree
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  Speaker 3: that shark bites, the prevalence of them has risen in
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  Speaker 3: Australia and across the world. The reasons for that are
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  Speaker 3: varied big one experts. Point two is there's more people
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  Speaker 3: and there's more people in the water. But until we
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  Speaker 3: get a better picture of shark numbers in our country,
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  Speaker 3: it's difficult to see preventative measures that we can take.
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  Speaker 1: The experts who talk after a shark encounter, as many
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  Speaker 1: of them would describe it, feel to me like that
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  Speaker 1: kind often blamed the victim. You shouldn't have been swimming
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  Speaker 1: in murky water, you shouldn't have been swimming after heavy rain.
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  Speaker 1: You shouldn't swim near an estuary mouth. That's what we
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  Speaker 1: heard in January when there were bull shark attacks in
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  Speaker 1: the harbor.
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  Speaker 4: There were four attacks in forty eight hours in January,
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  Speaker 4: and the opposition says a coal should be considered.
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  Speaker 1: Leah Stewart seemed to be doing everything right, didn't she.
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  Speaker 1: It was a beautiful clear day, a quldji. She was
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  Speaker 1: swimming between the flags. She had an expectation. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: that beach was safe. How do we balance the rights
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  Speaker 1: of swimmers and of human beings with the concern for
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  Speaker 1: these creatures that live in the ocean.
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  Speaker 3: We had a new South Wales government expert after the attack.
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  Speaker 3: As you said, she was doing everything right. It was
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  Speaker 3: the middle of the day, she was in between the
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  Speaker 3: flags and by all accounts this was thirty meters off
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  Speaker 3: the beach. So I think that's why this has been
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  Speaker 3: so shocking and really reignited this debate how do we
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  Speaker 3: manage humans and sharks living in proximity to one another.
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  Speaker 3: We're seeing now one of the options Chris Mins has
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  Speaker 3: left on the table is a cull but of bull sharks,
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  Speaker 3: so bull sharks aren't protected species. And actually, after those
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  Speaker 3: spade of attacks, which included a fatal attack on a
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  Speaker 3: twelve year old boy in Sydney Harbor over the summer months,
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  Speaker 3: the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries is counting
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  Speaker 3: bull sharks within Sydney Harbor and Chris Mins has left
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  Speaker 3: open the possibility of a cul of those sharks, So
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  Speaker 3: that's one way that they're looking at dealing with this
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  Speaker 3: spade of attacks and also the proximity of sharks and humans.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we've had a child killed, We've had a
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  Speaker 1: couple of surfers, we've now had a thirty five year
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  Speaker 1: old mother of a young child whose toddler was on
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the sand being looked after while she had a swim.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't really get much worse than that. I feel
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  Speaker 1: though there is another level that the New Southwold's government
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  Speaker 1: could get to. I mean, it could lobby the federal
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  Speaker 1: government to bring back in the licensed fishing of great
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  Speaker 1: whites or a cold couldn't they Why don't they want
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  Speaker 1: to do that?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's hard to find academics and experts who
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  Speaker 3: agree that is the way to go, and without that
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  Speaker 3: scientific backing, I think the government is nervous to do
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  Speaker 3: what would appear to be a politically popular especially in
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  Speaker 3: some corners.
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  Speaker 1: Move but you're never going to get a shark. Expect
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  Speaker 1: to agree to that because they're all marine biologists who
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  Speaker 1: love sharks. But of course they're motivated.
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  Speaker 3: To care exactly right, they're probably.
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  Speaker 6: The wrong people to be asking the one't yeah, yeah
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  Speaker 6: exactly So they keep pointing to the evidence that you
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  Speaker 6: can cull sharks in one spot, but especially these big
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  Speaker 6: great white so they migrate from country to country, from
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  Speaker 6: coast to coast.
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  Speaker 3: At this point in time, as I said, Chris Mins
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  Speaker 3: appears exceedingly reluctant to go that option. Instead wants to
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  Speaker 3: become a world leader and using drones to spot sharks.
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  Speaker 3: It appears he's got the support from his opposition leader,
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  Speaker 3: so while there's not that political friction there forcing the hand,
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  Speaker 3: it probably won't happen.
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  Speaker 1: He's New South Wales's Agriculture Minister, Tara Moriati. Embracing new
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  Speaker 1: technology is the priority, so more drones in the sky,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing is off the table. I think Australians have
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  Speaker 1: come to regard shark attacks as a fear that can
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  Speaker 1: be overcome, that if you just don't concentrate on it,
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  Speaker 1: you don't let those cellos from jewels play in your
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  Speaker 1: mind too much. When you're out there swimming, you think
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  Speaker 1: about the fact that you're more likely to get run
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  Speaker 1: over by a car than you are to get eaten
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  Speaker 1: by a shark. That you can kind of wish this
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  Speaker 1: fear away. But it does feel like things have changed. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel the fear and do you think things
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  Speaker 1: have changed.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Claire, I grew up in central West New South Wales,
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  Speaker 3: so I'm ambivalent towards the beach in the ocean. I
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  Speaker 3: could happily just stick to the rivers for the rest
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  Speaker 3: of my life. But if this is an issue that
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: won't go away for Chris Means because the population is
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  Speaker 3: all on the coast, so he needs to work out
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  Speaker 3: and quite quickly what he's going to do, whether it's drones,
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  Speaker 3: whether it is putting those nets in place on beaches
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  Speaker 3: at least for this upcoming summer. And I think if
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  Speaker 3: there's any more attacks anywhere similar to this horrifying one
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  Speaker 3: we have at Kulji, it's going to be a no
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  Speaker 3: brainer for him.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Lockie, I might be swimming in the Darling River
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  Speaker 1: with you this summer if things don't improve. Thanks very much,
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Claire. It's Budget Day in New South Wales today
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  Speaker 1: and Lachlan Lemming is our New South Wales political correspondent
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  Speaker 1: leading our coverage. You can check it out right now
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au