Thursday, 27 October 2011
In response to calls for a shark cull following the recent
fatalities in WA waters, Ryan Kempster, a marine neuroecologist from The UWA Oceans
Institute, has written an article in The
Conversation condemning the plan.
WA Premier Colin Barnett told reporters earlier this week that
the government would consider a number of measures to protect swimmers and
divers from further attacks. These include the possibility of permitting
commercial fisherman to catch more sharks in a bid to reduce numbers.
"The number of attacks is negligible when you consider the
vast and increasing number of swimmers entering our coastal waters every year,"
wrote Ryan. "Removing sharks from our ocean ecosystems is very likely to be
ecologically and economically devastating."
Read Ryan's full article in The Conversation here.
Winthrop Professor Shaun Collin, a WA Premier's Research
Fellow at The UWA Oceans Institute and School of Animal Biology, has also
spoken out against the proposed cull, commenting for a number of publications
such as the West Australian, Australian
Geographic and ABC
Online.
Media references
Beau Gamble (+61 4) 39 699 675
Ryan Kempster (+61 8) 6488 7507