Shark Culling In Western Australia

In Australia, sharks kill an average of three people every year. In Queensland 2017, to counter this, 667 sharks were culled to protect human’s safety on Australian beaches along with 100 accidental deaths of turtles, dolphins and dugongs. This was done with no scientific evidence to support that culling would work. All over the world 90% of shark species are threatened to become extinct with people killing 273 million sharks every year. This is why we must ban and make sure shark culling stops and never ever starts again. Shark culling is ludicrous, you have more of a chance dying from a coconut falling on you than a shark attack, coconuts actually kill 150 people every year does this mean we are going to kill all the coconuts? Here are a few arguments why shark culling must stop.

More and more people have been introduced to a very dangerous practice called shark-finning. Even the people who are aware of the harmful effects they bring still continue on doing it. People are afraid of sharks due to their fierce appearance and the bad publicity they get such as the movies wherein sharks attack humans. Only about 5 people are killed by sharks every year. In fact, vending machines has a higher death rate of 13, while ants can kill about 30 people annually. Sharks are very beneficial to us, why do people keep on harming them? Why is shark-finning so important? Shark-finning gives both advantages and disadvantages economically, politically, cultural, societal, and environmental. It is important to recognize the

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s article “The Brutal Business of Shark Finning” reminds us that sharks play a key role in the ocean as both predators and scavengers.

Picture the beach, the golden sand and aqua water, the warm bright sun in the background, Imagine what is under the water, the aqua clear waters and the little fishes, but instead the ocean is full of nets capturing these harmless sharks. This is redicious to capture and kill these native Australian sharks. Shark culling has become the new issue for Australian media. Shark culling is not the answer for safer oceans.

The issue surrounding the Western Australian shark cull initiative will be the central topic of discussion in this critical essay. A rise in shark attacks in recent years has caused the Western Australian government to employ the Department Of Fisheries Western Australia to pursue a systematic and regulated cull of sharks. However the Greens – who are a political party and pressure group – are advocating for this cull to be stopped through lobbying.

Is shark culling okay given the number of shark attacks that have occurred? Recently it seems that the number of shark attacks has increased with seven fatal attacks in the past 3 years in Western Australia (WA). These recent attacks have led the WA Government being granted an exemption to start culling sharks with a catch-and-kill shark program. A lot of people including scientists and surfers are against this controversial decision. For people to make an informed decision they need to have an understanding of where the shark fits into the marine ecosystem, as well as the reasons presented for the use of shark culling and the arguments given that oppose such extreme measures.

Whenever you go to the Fish and Chips shop, have you heard about “Flake”? Flakes are a type of shark. They have been killed just for us to eat. The price of them are also increasing. At least 100 million sharks are killed every year. In Eastern parts of Asia, Sharks were being culled for shark fin soup. Dragging out the sharks out of the ocean and cutting off their fins and throwing their dead body back into the ocean is unacceptable. How would you feel if we were dragged out of our home by a random person, got our arm cut off and got put back into our home again? I’m sure that we would all be horrified and terrified by this. It is said that Shark Fin Soup costs around $100 per bowl of soup. There are also some countries that have completely banned shark culling. They are Israel, Ecuador, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia, Fiji and so on. It is very unfortunate that Australia isn’t a part of this. Sharks also help with ecosystems.

Imagine a world without your favorite foods you have ever consumed. Imagine a world where you cannot even enjoy your favorite beach on vacation because of unmanageable algae taking over our coasts. Imagine a world with a huge spike in greenhouse gases, and a dramatic decline of natural oxygen production. This is a world without the most feared and misunderstood creature that rules our oceans, the Shark. In an advertisement published by WWF, it conveys the message of what we should actually be fearing, the fall of our marine ecosystems and what that will do to humanity. The advertisement uses all three appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to push their targeted audience to further their education on our world and to spread the word to everyone

WA Labor opposes to the cull and catching of sharks after an attack as the evidence does not suggest it will actually prevent shark attacks. The strategy is likely to result, in yet again, the death of other marine species including dolphins, turtles, and non-threatening shark species and may in fact increase the risk to swimmers by attracting sharks

To this day, many of us still see them this way. In fact, coastal states stared to host shark culling events. In these sometime month-long events, a state government will pay any fishermen to bring in a freshly killed shark generous amounts of money. Peter Benchley, the author of "Jaws" doesn't support shark culling, he in fact helped raise awareness about sharks becoming endangered. He wrote articles about how misunderstood sharks are (Benchley, Peter). This is now illegal in the United States, but is still practiced in countries such as Japan and Australia. Even in those countries, shark culling is on its way out. But

The fourth component is disproportionality. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s article (2009), the author remarked that moral panic is existed if there is a disproportion between the action taken and the actual threat formed by the indicted group. It signifies that the shark attacks and the response from WA in this case. In order to prevent the threat from sharks, the WA government responded the shark cull to protect swimmers and surfers from attack. In actuality, the number of shark attacks worldwide each year is very low. There were 80 unprovoked shark attacks on people worldwide in 2012, fourteen of these were occurred in Australia whereas only two attacks were fatal (ABC 2015). In contrast, Surf Life Saving South Australia stated

Recently Australia has been under the national and international spotlight regarding methods implemented to reduce tiger, great white and bull sharks numbers in an attempt to minimise human fatalities. Although relatively infrequent, shark attacks attract a high level of public and media interest, as they invoke a dramatic emotional response. Australia is well known for its beach culture, due mostly to its approximate 11, 800 beaches and estimated 35, 000km of coastline.35 000 km of coast. Given that Australia has a mostly favourable climate, and a range of popular beach and water-related activities, it is not surprising that it has a relatively high rate of shark attack. Data from the Australian Shark Attack File were examined

Every summer, Discovery Channel dedicates an entire week to air shows about one animal: sharks. Shark Week features shows about shark attacks, new research pertaining to sharks, comedic interpretation of shark behaviors, and much more. It grows in popularity every year and according to The Atlantic, it is “the longest-running cable TV programming event in history.”(Fetters) With its growing population, comes its growing influence on the general public and its attitude towards sharks. Sharks don’t have their own voice, therefore whatever we say about them is taken without question, and we create their reputation through our communication. How we treat sharks and their environment is based on how we feel about the species. Negative portrayal of sharks in the media leads to decreased support for conservation.

Arising over 350 million years ago, the shark species has been labeled as a human devourer. Now, with the increase in human population, the demand for shark meat, fins, and cartilage are at an all time high; therefore, the existence of the shark is becoming a concern (Budker 1971). Individuals are conditioned to think of sharks as a negative aspect to the environment, which is prolonging the effort to save shark species from becoming extinct. With that in mind, some private as well as national organizations have accepted the challenge of educating and informing people about the existence of the shark specie and its importance to the sea.

During these years, the ‘shark attack’ issue has been a controversial topic around Australia, where it has the most attack than the other parts of the world. In this paper, I present my arguments on why sharks should not be killed nor responsible for the attacks.