TAKE ACTION : REMOVE SHARK NETS
WHY THE OUTRAGE:
Yesterday, a young, migrating humpback whale became entangled in Queensland’s shark nets and discovered struggling off Snapper Rocks. There are no shark nets at Snapper Rocks, only drumlines. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said the whale was entangled in a shark net from neighbouring Coolangatta.
Nets that are in place to “protect” humans from shark attacks, however much research shows that these nets are INEFFECTIVE (more on this below). So the question is WHY are they still in the water if they aren’t preventing shark attacks and instead entangling other innocent, non-target species?? The QLD “shark control program” uses “technology” that hasn’t been changed or updated since it’s inception in the 1930’s!
Our friend Scott Wilson captured the rescue attempt with his drone, and you can see his footage on his instagram page here and here. It is unknown if this whale survived the night, but boaters have been searching for it all day 30 nautical miles off the coast.
HENCE THE OUTRAGE.
WHO TO CONTACT:
Email the Queensland Minister for Agriculture and tell him to remove shark nets NOW
Ferny.Grove@parliament.qld.gov.au and agriculture@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Queensland Minister for the Environment Meagan Scanlan at this link: https://cabinet.qld.gov.au/ministers-portfolios/meaghan-scanlon.aspx
WHAT SHOULD YOUR EMAIL SAY:
copy, paste, or edit, or write your own… press SEND.
Dear Minister,
I am highly distressed about the whale entanglement off Snapper Rocks yesterday and presumed still entangled today. This young migrating humpback became entangled in one of your shark control nets and rescue attempts have thus far been unsuccessful. The 'Shark mitigation and deterrent measures' Senate Inquiry (2017), found substantial evidence that Mesh Nets and Drumlines used by the Queensland Shark Control Program and NSW Shark Meshing and Bather Protection Program to Cull sharks - do not make any impact on safety, negatively impact the marine Ecosystem, and provide beach goers with a false sense of security - and recommended they cease in favour of modern non-lethal technologies. Therefore, I beg you to please remove these ineffective, misleading, and frankly barbaric nets from your coast.
We have examined research on these programs elsewhere, where it also was determined an ineffective measure for preventing shark attacks. In Hawaii over 4,500 sharks were culled over nearly two decades. After an evaluation demonstrated that the cull did not impact the number of swimmer fatalities, the program was quickly abandoned in favour of non-lethal measures.
In fact Australia’s own courts have determined these measures ineffective. The outcome of Humane Society International (Australia) Inc vs Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (Qld) AATA Case proved overwhelmingly that mesh nets and drumlines used by these programs does not make any impact on safety, negatively impacts on the marine ecosystem, and provides beachgoers with a false sense of security.
Moreover, in assessing Queensland Shark Control Program catch data, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, we have found 500+ cases of smaller animals, caught on baited drumlines and nets, that have then been predated on by a large shark. So it seems the shark nets and drumlines bait large sharks closer to swimmers and surfers.
Research shows that these nets are NOT serving their original purpose of reducing shark related fatalities. Since 1962, when the drum line program began in Queensland, the fatality rate has averaged 0.37 per year, a number not significantly different than previous decades. During the 160 years from 1850 to 2010, the average fatality from shark bite rate varied. From 1850 to 1910 it was 0.32 fatalities per year, but then a spike in fatalities in the 1920s saw the average increase to 1.1 per year. Following that, the rate of fatal bites generally declined, falling to a low of 0.2 per year in the 1990s (Meeuwig et al, 2014).
Additionally, the bycatch of these nets significantly outweighs the targeted shark catch. In NSW during 2017/2018 alone, the program caught: 20 Grey Nurse Sharks, 10 killed (Critically endangered species) • 78 Smooth Hammerheads, 77 killed • 3 Great Hammerheads, all killed (Endangered species) • 4 Common Dolphins, all killed (Protected species) • 3 Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, all killed (Protected species) • 26 White Sharks, 14 killed (Threatened species) • 9 Green Turtles, 7 killed (Threatened species) • 2 Hawksbill Turtles, both killed (Threatened species) • 2 Leatherback Sea Turtles, released alive (Threatened species) • 1 Olive Ridley Turtle, killed (Threatened species) • 172 Rays, 31 killed (Protected species/Non-Target species) • 3 Port Jackson Sharks, 1 dead (Non-Target species)
Please note my VOTE for the REMOVAL OF SHARK NETS and reconsider your own position. Refer to envoyfilm.com.au/facts more links to this research.
Most Sincerely,
Kathryn Nelson
TAKE MORE ACTION HERE : https://www.envoyfilm.com.au/actnow
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE OFFICIAL GLOBAL ENVOY PETITION TO END THE CULLING
CLICK HERE TO SEND A LETTER TO THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CULLING (YOUR LOCAL MEMBER)
MORE ON THIS SITUATION:
This young whale was spotted entangled off Snapper Rocks. There are no shark nets at Snapper Rocks, only drumlines. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said the whale was entangled in a shark net from neighbouring Coolangatta. Here is an image of the nets and drumlines along this part of the coast.
When asked about the rescue this morning, Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the entrapment was a "tragic" situation, but she trusted the rescue teams to do the "very best they can" to free the whale.
She said a range of pilot projects were being trialled with Queensland Surf Life Saving to see what other technologies could be used in oceans off the Gold Coast to control sharks.
Ms Scanlon said drones had been used successfully overseas.
"We need to really look at all of the options available but ultimately our number one priority remains the safety of swimmers who are entering our oceans," she said.
This is our opportunity to write to her and demand she do more, urgently. If she is exploring other options, this is good, let us push her to take more action.
WHALES SEQUESTER CARBON = TO 4 AMAZON FORESTS:
In death: A study published in 2010 estimated that eight types of baleen whales, including blue, humpback, and minke whales, collectively shuttle nearly 30,000 tons of carbon into the deep sea each year as their carcasses sink. If great whale populations rebounded to their pre-commercial whaling size, the authors estimate this carbon sink would increase by 160,000 tons a year.
In life: While they are alive, whales might do even more to capture carbon, thanks to their jumbo-sized excrement. Great whales feed on tiny marine organisms like plankton and krill in the ocean’s depths before surfacing to breathe, poop and pee—and the latter activities release enormous plume of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron, into the water. So-called poo-namis stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, marine algae that pull carbon out of the air via photosynthesis.
When phytoplankton die, much of their carbon gets recycled at the ocean’s surface. But some dead phytoplankton inevitably sink, sending more captured carbon to the bottom of the sea. Another study from 2010 found that the 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean draw 200,000 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year by stimulating phytoplankton growth and death through their iron-rich defecations.
Exactly how much whale poop boosts phytoplankton on a global scale isn’t known, according to Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont who’s been studying the phenomenon for years. That’s why the economists took what Chami describes as an “if, then” approach, asking how much carbon could be captured, hypothetically, if the world’s current population of great whales enhanced marine phytoplankton by about 1 percent globally. To this, they added a literature-based estimate of how much carbon dioxide whales sequester when they die: about 33 tons per carcass, on average. (source)
