Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Marine conservation

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:11): (444) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for shark nets and drum lines to be prohibited in Victoria. Shark numbers in the open ocean have dropped by roughly 71 per cent in the past 50 years. A Senate inquiry into the effectiveness and regulation of shark mitigation and deterrent measures was told that culling and drum lines would not reduce the number of deaths in Australia. Despite our sensationalised fear of sharks, nobody has been killed by an attack in Victoria in over three decades. Attacks are rare everywhere, and yet Australia is one of the only countries in the world to actively kill sharks caught in nets and drum lines.

This state is home to 2500 kilometres of beautiful coastline and 170 types of sharks. From great whites and bronze whalers to 1.5-metre elephant sharks, Victoria has them all, and yet, thankfully, not once have shark nets or drum lines been considered necessary by the Victorian government. Instead we have successfully relied on community education, aerial droning and patrol boats to monitor and issue warnings. Effective surveillance coupled with a better understanding for sharks and their environment are why attack statistics are so low and not expected to rise.

Of 396 animals found in shark nets from 2018 to 2019 in New South Wales, only 23 were the intended targets. Twenty-three great whites, bull or tiger sharks and a further 372 innocent marine animals including dolphins, cownose rays and turtles were caught by these deathtraps. Biologists and conservationists have been campaigning for years to pull nets and drum lines from Australian beaches. Not only can sharks swim under, around and above the nets, but as Humane Society International pointed out, at least 40 per cent of sharks are caught on the beach side of nets trying to find their way back out into the open water. They are truly redundant. Drum lines are large baited hooks that lure sharks and other animals as they enter shallow water. Those caught can suffer for hours before they are ever discovered and either killed or released with an unknown fate. Interstate trials have consistently deemed them to be ineffective safety measures.

Despite this damning evidence, New South Wales and Queensland have recently announced that they will continue to net and bait over 130 beaches in the lead-up to this year’s summer. Nets and drum lines are stripping our oceans under the guise of protection, but sharks are vital to keeping our oceans healthy. I hope the minister will agree to never utilise either of these cruel and deadly traps in Victorian waters.