The NSW State Government has a new Minister for Primary Industries - the Hon. Tony Kelly. He has the power to remove shark nets from NSW beaches. Write to him today to let him know where you stand on the issue!
The Hon. Tony Kelly
NSW Minister for Primary Industries
Level 34 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: 9228 3999
Fax: 9228 3988
sharon.armstrong@lands.nsw.gov.au
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
"Turning the Tide" photo exhibition
Check out this article about these beautiful photos, taken to raise awareness of the threat shark nets pose to marine animals.
"When Sacha, scientist and champion free diver, got together with Argentinean photographer, Alejandro Rolandi, they started developing a scenario to bring the hidden world of shark nets out of the water and into the public eye and hopefully the public conscience. The result is Turning the Tide, an extraordinary and controversial photographic exhibition. The images are evocative, haunting and perhaps disturbing yet incredibly beautiful."Read the rest of the article and see more photos at http://www.underwater.com.au/article.php/id/6133/
Sample Letter to a Minister
Take Action!
Please send this letter to the following Ministers to let them know how you feel about shark nets. Make sure you include your address (so they can reply).
The Hon. Ian MacDonald
NSW Minister for Primary Industries
Level 33 Governor Macquarie Tower
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9228 3344
Fax (02) 9228 3452
Email: macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au
The Hon John Robertson
NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment
Level 35 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9228 5661
Fax (02) 9228 5168
Email office@robertson.minister.nsw.gov.au
The Hon Peter Garrett
Federal Minister for Environment, Heritage & The Arts
PO Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone 02 6277 7640
Fax 02 6273 6101
Email him via http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memfeedback.asp?id=HV4
Dear (Insert name of minister)
I am writing to draw your attention to the issue of the use of shark nets off New South Wales beaches. Protective measures against sharks are not necessary, as they pose such a small risk to swimmers. Over the past 218 years, the number of fatal shark attacks has remained steady at approximately one per year.
The belief commonly held by the general public that nets are designed to prevent sharks reaching the beach is incorrect, as approximately forty percent of sharks entangled are caught on the beach side. Sharks can easily swim around shark nets, which are merely designed to kill sharks, rather than protect the public. The large number of other animals, such as whales, dolphins and turtles, caught in the nets is unacceptable and unnecessary. Many of these species are endangered and thus the nets work in opposition to any of the Government's marine conservation plans.
Even if preventative measures were deemed necessary by the government, I implore you to consider the alternative solutions that would minimise the harm to sharks and other species, some of which are endangered. These technologies include sonar devices, shields and enclosures. Aerial patrols of beaches should be increased to warn beach-goers when sharks are around.
For the reasons expressed above, I urge you to remove all shark nets from New South Wales beaches. Please inform me of any measures taken by your department to address these issues, or any plans currently being developed in response.
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
(Insert your name here)
"Misunderstood Monsters" by Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley (the author of Jaws) has written a piece called "Misunderstood Monsters" about the views he holds today regarding sharks. It can be found below, courtesy of Save Our Sharks.
One day, a few years after "Jaws" was published, I was diving in the Bahamas, examining a pile of old cannons on a reef. A friend who had discovered them wanted to know if I thought they were merely a "dump" (weight jettisoned by the crew of a ship that had run aground on the reef) or if the ship itself had sunk there and might still be buried in the sand nearby. So down to the reef I went, to where the cannons littered the reef like Tootsie Rolls dropped from the pocket of some sweet-toothed giant, and as I sank through 50 feet of gin-clear water I turned in slow circles to see what company I might have.
I wasn't worried about sharks. The reef sharks of the Bahamas are generally shy and averse to scuba divers, and the odds were long against a tiger shark, a more dangerous species, being in the neighborhood. And, since we were anchored miles from deep water, the chances of encountering an open-sea predator like a mako or an oceanic whitetip were less than minimal.
As for great whites, well, the possibility of encountering a great white was so remote as to be nonexistent. They like deep water; this water was shallow. They're drawn to seal colonies or to carcasses of dead whales, where food is abundant; here there was nothing worth eating.
Those were the facts. And surely, I, recently catapulted to two-bit celebrity by my supposed expertise on sharks, should have known the facts.
In any event, as I swam slowly from one end of the reef to the other, searching for pieces of wood, encrusted iron, shards of pottery (all telltale signs of a shipwreck) I heard a sound above me. I looked up and saw one of my shipmates lying on the surface in snorkeling gear, slapping the water with one hand. He pointed to the far side of the reef where evidently he had seen something worthy of my attention. I waved and shot him the "okay" sign... I would get to it in a minute. I continued on.
Again I heard him slap the water. Again I looked up. Now he was pointing with some urgency. Again I waved and kept going. I'd get to it.
The next sound I heard was the "thrum" of his fins churning the water as he hurried back to the boat. Strange, I thought.
I reached the end of the reef and started to turn back. Then, suddenly sensing another presence, I raised my eyes and found myself face to face with, and not five feet away from, a great white shark.
No question, no doubt. The pointed snout, the underslung mouth, the black eyes, the torpedo shape of the gunmetal gray body (12 feet long perhaps, although it looked to be at least 25) and most distinctive of all, the unique caudal peduncle (rounded protrusions near the tail, resembling horizontal stabilizers). All these qualities broadcast the majesty of the great white.
I froze, able only to picture the ironic headlines that would announce my demise.
But the shark froze, too. And then abruptly, frantically, implausibly, the great white wheeled around, voided its bowels, and disappeared in a nasty brown cloud.
I didn't move. I was too breathless, grateful and stunned. Did that actually happen? Could the most fearsome predator on earth, the largest carnivorous fish in the sea, have fled from a puny human, from me, like a startled rabbit?
Back on the boat, when my pulse had dropped below 250 and my skin color had lost its necrotic gray, I began to wonder if the accepted facts about sharks were not facts at all, and I've been reappraising ever since. The process is ongoing and endless, and if I've been able to draw a single, solid conclusion, it is this: The more we know about sharks, the more we realize how much there still is to be learned.
When I wrote "Jaws" more than 20 years ago, we lived in a different age. Richard Nixon was President, there was no cable television, no such thing as a VCR, Steven Spielberg was an unknown wunderkind
in his twenties, and our knowledge of sharks (science's and the general
public's) was still in its infancy.My research for the book was thorough and good, for the time. I read papers, watched all the documentaries, talked to all the experts. I realize now, though, that I was very much a prisoner of traditional conceptions. And misconceptions.
In those days, for example, it was common knowledge that sharks were not only carnivores, they were omnivores; they would eat anything. They would attack, kill and devour human beings without much, if any,
provocation. They would attack boats. They were compelled by their nature, all species without exception, to keep moving, or they would die of anoxia, a severe lack of oxygen. The shark had, as Richard Ellis points out in his superb book, "Monsters of the Sea", "...come down through history with a reputation as an ancient, mindless, man-eating, ship-following, eating machine that should by rights be eradicated from the face of the earth."But, as Ellis goes on to say, "As with all myths, this one has some grains of truth embedded in a substantial matrix of fantasy."
I couldn't write "Jaws" today. The extensive new knowledge of sharks would make it impossible for me to create, in good conscience, a villain of the magnitude and malignity of the original.
Current theory holds that, with rare exceptions, sharks do not intentionally attack human beings. In fact, most of the 368 known species have neither the capacity nor inclination to attack, and only ten or twelve species have been known to even hassle a human.
Some attacks are probably cases of mistaken identity. Photographs have demonstrated that, seen under water, a person on a surfboard silhouetted against the sun is indistinguishable from a sea lion. A clumsy human murky water could easily be taken as a wounded fish. And a scuba diver wearing a black wetsuit and black fins may well appear to a passing shark to be an acceptable meal of warm-blooded
mammal... a sea lion, perhaps. (Of course, if a 3000-pound shark chooses to sample a scuba diver, believing it to be a sea lion, by the time it realizes its mistake, apologies may ring a bit hollow.)Other attacks may be triggered by a shark's instinct to protect its territory. Some sharks emit warning signals and demonstrate distinctive postures before they attack. Reef fish receive the message and take cover; humans may not perceive or understand them, and may invite trouble by refusing to retreat.
We also know now that even the most formidable great white shark does not attack boats. Responding to complex and confusing electromagnetic signals in the water, a great white will test a boat, exploring it with its mouth to determine if it is edible.
And not all sharks have to keep moving. As Dr. Eugenie Clark of the University of Maryland discovered in the waters off Mexico, there are sharks that can rest motionless, extracting oxygen from the water carried over their gills by flowing currents.
In any event, despite the attacks that do occur, and each one generates appallingly sensational headlines, it is generally accepted today that a person has a much greater chance of being killed by bee stings than by a shark.
Not any of this is meant in any way to dismiss the danger or horror of a shark attack. Great whites have been documented at 23 feet long and can weigh more than three and a half tons. They do eat people now and then, and surely there can no more gruesome a way to go than to be gobbled up by a monster fish. I will never forget the celebrated Australian diver Rodney Fox recalling the nightmare of being attacked in the 1960s. "I looked down," he said, "and saw that great conical head rising at me through a cloud of my own blood, and that's when I knew I was in trouble."
But sharks are more often victims than villains. Know one knows precisely how many sharks are killed every year, but a widely excepted estimate is 100 million. In other words, for every recorded attack on a human being, more than four million sharks are destroyed by human beings.
Much of the killing is wanton and wasteful. Thousands of sharks die in nets or on longlines and are discarded by fisheries because they aren't needed. Others are massacred because a few body parts are worth a fistful of dollars, as with "finning", in which a shark is caught, its fins sliced off to be sold to make soup in Asia, and the still-living animal is tossed back into the sea to die.
Our excess, as one would expect, is returning to haunt us. Shark catches, which ballooned in the last 20 years, are beginning to decline, not from lack of initiative but from a lack of sharks. Great whites have already been declared endangered in South Africa and parts of
Australia, and the populations of several other species have been reduced to a point where recovery is very much in question.There's a curious paradox inherent in our reckless assault on sharks. As the bizarre overreaction to "Jaws" demonstrated, while we may fear sharks and profess to hate them, we are also thrilled by them. Ellis quotes sociobiologist E. O. Wilson on man's contradictory view of sharks, specifically the great white. "We're not just afraid of predators," Wilson writes. "We're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters."
The mistake we make, then, either in seeking to destroy sharks or in not caring if we even inadvertently destroy them, is one of cosmic stupidity. If I have one hope, it is that we will come to appreciate and protect these wonderful animals before we manage, through ignorance, stupidity and greed, to wipe them out altogether.
For the media - position statement
No Nets - Position Statement
No Nets is a group that campaigns for the removal of shark nets from NSW beaches. Shark nets are harmful to all marine life, from endangered grey nurse sharks to migrating humpback whales. Yet they do little to prevent shark attacks on our beaches. No Nets believes that shark nets need to be removed from NSW beaches and replaced with less destructive alternative technologies that will benefit both beach-goers and all marine life.
There are currently 51 nets in place of NSW beaches. They are not complete barriers, as many people believe but merely lengths of net that float below the surface. They don’t extend all the way to the surface or sea floor, so sharks can go over, under or around them. In fact 40% of sharks trapped in nets are trapped from the beach side – that is, they are trying to swim away from the beach!
The NSW Government claims the nets aren’t there to prevent sharks from approaching beaches but rather “to break up shark habitat patterns and encourage them to move on”. Yet there is little evidence that they do this. Furthermore the size of the mesh is around 50cm, which means there is a high risk of entanglement when marine life comes in to contact with the nets. Entanglement often results in a slow death by drowning or at least leaves the animal injured from struggling while entrapped. If nothing else is to be done, at least the use of a finer mesh would cause many less marine animals to become entangled. Yet the refusal of the State Government to use nets with smaller mesh shows that they are more interested in catching sharks than finding real ways to protect our beaches.
As well as sharks, each year hundreds of other marine animals are fatally trapped in shark nets. Animals including dolphins, manta rays, whales, dugongs, turtles and some large fish have all been found entangled in shark nets in NSW. No Nets believes this by-catch is not justified by the low chance these nets are effective in preventing already very rare events. Furthermore many species affected by shark nets (including some shark species!) are recognised as threatened species by the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as well as NSW laws. Yet shark nets continue to exist, despite their impact on threatened species.
No Nets believes that shark nets only provide the illusion of protection from sharks. We believe support for shark nets stems from a deeper misunderstanding of sharks. We believe perceptions of sharks need to change from seeing sharks as man-eating beasts to fragile and endangered animals that play an important role in the ocean’s ecosystems and deserve to be protected. Many sharks are endangered, for example the grey nurse shark which is endemic to Australia. It is estimated that there are less than 500 grey nurse sharks left. With a species this close to extinction, every shark killed by shark nets is a huge loss to the population.
No Nets supports and encourages research and development into alternate ways of preventing shark attacks. A number of technologies, such as sonar-based repellant devices, have been developed that may play a role in keeping sharks away from beaches if implemented on a large scale. They may also have value in protecting individuals at risk, for example surfers and divers.
However a number of strategies already exist to minimise shark attacks. Aerial patrols are an effective way of warning beach-goers if any sharks are in the area or if large numbers of bait fish are present off shore. Furthermore, discouraging swimming at dawn or dusk, in murky water or with a dog would minimise the risk of shark attacks.
No Nets demands that the NSW Government removes shark nets from NSW beaches.
At minimum nets should
• be replaced with a fine mesh that minimises the entrapment of animals
• be patrolled twice a day instead of once every 2-3 days to attempt to release any trapped animals still alive
• be removed in whale migration seasons (from June-July and September-November)
However the best decision would be to remove nets all together and replace them with more effective ways of protecting beach-goers that don’t harm marine life.
No Nets is a group that campaigns for the removal of shark nets from NSW beaches. Shark nets are harmful to all marine life, from endangered grey nurse sharks to migrating humpback whales. Yet they do little to prevent shark attacks on our beaches. No Nets believes that shark nets need to be removed from NSW beaches and replaced with less destructive alternative technologies that will benefit both beach-goers and all marine life.
There are currently 51 nets in place of NSW beaches. They are not complete barriers, as many people believe but merely lengths of net that float below the surface. They don’t extend all the way to the surface or sea floor, so sharks can go over, under or around them. In fact 40% of sharks trapped in nets are trapped from the beach side – that is, they are trying to swim away from the beach!
The NSW Government claims the nets aren’t there to prevent sharks from approaching beaches but rather “to break up shark habitat patterns and encourage them to move on”. Yet there is little evidence that they do this. Furthermore the size of the mesh is around 50cm, which means there is a high risk of entanglement when marine life comes in to contact with the nets. Entanglement often results in a slow death by drowning or at least leaves the animal injured from struggling while entrapped. If nothing else is to be done, at least the use of a finer mesh would cause many less marine animals to become entangled. Yet the refusal of the State Government to use nets with smaller mesh shows that they are more interested in catching sharks than finding real ways to protect our beaches.
As well as sharks, each year hundreds of other marine animals are fatally trapped in shark nets. Animals including dolphins, manta rays, whales, dugongs, turtles and some large fish have all been found entangled in shark nets in NSW. No Nets believes this by-catch is not justified by the low chance these nets are effective in preventing already very rare events. Furthermore many species affected by shark nets (including some shark species!) are recognised as threatened species by the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as well as NSW laws. Yet shark nets continue to exist, despite their impact on threatened species.
No Nets believes that shark nets only provide the illusion of protection from sharks. We believe support for shark nets stems from a deeper misunderstanding of sharks. We believe perceptions of sharks need to change from seeing sharks as man-eating beasts to fragile and endangered animals that play an important role in the ocean’s ecosystems and deserve to be protected. Many sharks are endangered, for example the grey nurse shark which is endemic to Australia. It is estimated that there are less than 500 grey nurse sharks left. With a species this close to extinction, every shark killed by shark nets is a huge loss to the population.
No Nets supports and encourages research and development into alternate ways of preventing shark attacks. A number of technologies, such as sonar-based repellant devices, have been developed that may play a role in keeping sharks away from beaches if implemented on a large scale. They may also have value in protecting individuals at risk, for example surfers and divers.
However a number of strategies already exist to minimise shark attacks. Aerial patrols are an effective way of warning beach-goers if any sharks are in the area or if large numbers of bait fish are present off shore. Furthermore, discouraging swimming at dawn or dusk, in murky water or with a dog would minimise the risk of shark attacks.
No Nets demands that the NSW Government removes shark nets from NSW beaches.
At minimum nets should
• be replaced with a fine mesh that minimises the entrapment of animals
• be patrolled twice a day instead of once every 2-3 days to attempt to release any trapped animals still alive
• be removed in whale migration seasons (from June-July and September-November)
However the best decision would be to remove nets all together and replace them with more effective ways of protecting beach-goers that don’t harm marine life.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Some statistics on shark attacks
* Shark data represents the number of attacks worldwide, not deaths. Only 4 out of those 62 attacks resulted in death.
NB: Some of these statistics are based on USA reports
NB: Some of these statistics are based on USA reports
- In the last 20 years, there have been 24 recorded fatalities due to shark attack = averages 1.2 per year. In the last 50 years, there have been 53 recorded fatalities due to shark attack = averages 1.06 per year
- During the period 1969-2000, in NSW alone, 218 rock fishermen were swept off the rocks and drowned. In that same period 40 shark encounters were recorded with only 2 fatality reported. (Source: Taronga Zoo Australian Shark Attack File http://www.taronga.org.au/tcsa/conservations-programs/australian-shark-attack-file/general-information.aspx)
- On average there are 80 drowning deaths each year (Beachsafe Newsletter, Issue 16, 2009).
- Diving related deaths in Australia 1945-1987 = 292 (Diving Accident Management in Australia, 1988).
- "Eleven Australians were killed by lightning in the years 1983 to 1986", (John Sedgwick, Lightning Natures Terrible Swift Sword, Readers Digest, January 1990).
- On average there are 2-3 deaths per year from Bee stings in Australia (Dr Van Nunen Royal North Shore Hospital Allergy Unit. Feb 3rd 1989. Manly Daily). Three people died from bee stings in 1995 (Aust. Bureau of Statistics).
- On average, there is only one person per year killed by shark attack in Australia over the last 218 years.
Find more statistics about shark attacks at: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/statsw.htm
Additional sources of information on sharks and shark nets for further interest
The online books, scholarly articles, websites, campaigns, and you tube clips available in this section are useful resources for gaining further understanding and insight into shark nets and the misconceptions surrounding their use. These sources also provide information on sharks (and in particular the different shark species within NSW waters) and how important these marine creatures are to our marine ecosystems. This information expands on that already contained here on the No Nets site and shows just how important it is for us to remove nets from NSW beaches- both to protect swimmers more effectively and to protect sharks so that our seas stay healthy!
1. The PDF file download from this website investigates various misconceptions surrounding shark nets and the truth about them. It gives an excellent insight into the issue. Give it a read! The website itself is from the Nature Conservation of NSW and offers many extra links to save the sharks, adopt sharks, recreational fishing and a shark net survey to test your knowledge!
http://nccnsw.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1428&Itemid=711
2. Save our Sharks campaign website - this campaign is a local Sydney campaign that also addresses various misconceptions about shark nets and offers alternatives, asking “What Can We Do?”
http://www.saveoursharks.com.au/Save_Our_Sharks_-_Shark_Nets.html
3. This is a website about Shark Bait which also delves into WHY shark attacks occur and therefore is a useful resource for addressing some of the misconceptions about sharks themselves. The site/blog also has some youtube videos at the bottom of the page that are interesting to watch
http://hubpages.com/hub/Shark-Bait
4. This is a link to a scholarly article which compares shark control programmes in NSW and QLD. The article is a PDF file- this is just a link to the website- which you will need to download to read. The article looks at shark nets, the long term viability of them as a mechanism of protection, and how successful they are in protecting swimmers from sharks. The comparison presented in this article allows for a better understanding of how well this technique is working and focuses particularly on NSW shark nets.
5. This online book "Sharks and Rays of NSW" provides background information about different Sharks and Rays of NSW. This resource is useful for broadening your knowledge of Sharks and for further research into the area.
http://www.publish.csiro.au/samples/Sharks%20and%20Rays%20of%20Australia-Contents.pdf
6. This website is useful for gaining a better understanding of WHY shark nets were used in NSW originally and in particular looks at the fact that shark nets were installed as a response to the negative impact of shark attacks on local tourism. The website writes about various species of sharks that are captured within the shark control program and goes on to discuss the successes and problems of the program.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x2098e/X2098E15.htm
7. A link to the report into the shark-meshing program in NSW (the “Bather Protection Program”). The article, in essence, is concerned with the existing shark meshing program (the program currently implemented within NSW waters) and provides an assessment of these programs. The article is very in-depth, but is split into sections for easier reading, offering particular points on sharks, rays, and other marine animals as well as how the shark meshing program affects them.
http://www.sacf.org.au/ourpdf/Report-into-the-NSW-Shark-Meshing-Program.pdf
8. The report, "The Importance of Predators", addresses WHY we need sharks in our waters. It offers an array of information on the importance of sharks within the ecosystem, building on the information already contained on the No Nets website.
http://www.sacf.org.au/ourpdf/Report-into-the-NSW-Shark-Meshing-Program.pdf
9. An excellent DVD/Video to borrow is Valerie and Ron Taylor’s documentary "Shark Pod". This documentary looks at various protective ocean devices (like those discussed in the post on Alternatives to Shark Nets) and how successful they are. It provides viewers with a greater understanding of the various electronics available for shark surveillance and conservation which can be put in place instead of shark nets.
10. This video, "Coastcare: The problem with shark nets", is taken from a NSW news show and details just how many environmentalists in Sydney are fighting for shark nets to be removed- and to stop being implemented- at NSW beaches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hTqVc023fs&feature=related
11. The following website and you tube clip delve into the Save Our Seas' campaign and Maxine the shark. The aims of the website and thus the entire campaigns include Awareness, protection, preservation and conservation of the global marine environment –
**http://www.aoca.org.za/maxine_ed.htm is an interesting website for the realisation of how important sharks are to marine ecosystems. The website’s rationale is based upon ‘saving the sharks’ and what we can do to protect the many species of shark that are currently endangered or threatened. The website is a useful resource and campaign aimed not only at saving the sharks but saving our seas.
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_qB_MinOM "A Shark’s Legacy" - this youtube clip is about a ragged tooth shark named Maxine (the focus of the previous website's campaign). The clip provides an interesting way of gaining a further understanding into the need for shark conservation and describes the conservation program that currently exists.
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