A message from our Chair, Natalie Banks WAVES OF CHANGE - WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD When Premier Colin Barnett announced his drum line policy on 10 December 2013 to catch and kill sharks, I doubt he ever could have imagined the backlash from the community. Approximately 10,000 people across Australia protested on 4 January 2014 against this policy and the topic became world wide news. Global celebrities also raised their concerns, and the upswell of people against this policy gradually started increasing, like a ripple turning into a giant wave. A giant wave of change, never before seen for the misunderstood shark. Protests started taking places in countries like Spain, Argentina and Italy as well as New Zealand, Belguim, Scotland and The US. Another national protest in Australia on 4 February, 2014 attracted over 15,000 people, of which approximately half were in WA. Following these protests, record breaking numbers of submissions were written to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) demanding that the drum line policy be stopped. There are better ways to protect people than killing threatened and protected shark species. The people kept on writing letters, signing petitions, calling up radio stations, taking images of the sharks being killed and using their talents to highlight the issue any which way they could. Eventually, the people had a win; the EPA determined that there were environmental concerns with the drum line policy and Premier Barnett ceased the program. It was a time to celebrate; but the reality of the situation was that Barnett had secured a deal with the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt to drop drum lines whenever there was a perceived serious threat. As WA soon realised, a tagged white shark, feeding on spawning snapper at a time of school holidays, also met the guidelines of a serious threat and drum lines were put in place to catch and kill this individual shark. The community again were up in arms and are getting ready for another national protest again on 8 February 2015. But the issue is not just on WA .... The issue has become a national one, with gill nets used in NSW to catch sharks (and whatever marine animal that crosses its path) and in Queensland along with drum lines. The giant wave is growing bigger still. About a year after the Australian protests about the WA policy, the New South Wales Premier; Mike Baird has made the trial of Eco-friendly shark methods his first election pledge; announcing that the state will not resort to culling. The people are slowly winning across Australia and its because people chose to stand up rather than sit idly by.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:53:26 +0000
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