Legal Challenge Flagged to WA Shark Cull Laws

Monday 13 January 2014 @ 12.35 p.m. | Legal Research

After a spate of fatal shark attacks over the past two years, Western Australia has released a radical new shark plan that will see large sharks removed and destroyed from designated “safe zones”. 

The plan includes drum lines (baited hooks attached to drums) monitored daily, and soliciting commercial fishers to hunt sharks larger than 3 metres. Nationally threatened and legally protected Great White Sharks are expected to be one of the targeted species.

Shark Removal in the Rest of Australia

Removing large numbers of sharks in the hope of keeping ocean users safe is nothing new in Australia. Other states have long-running shark control programs using both baited hooks and shark nets to target sharks. For example, the Queensland and New South Wales shark control programs have been operating for decades and during that period have captured thousands of sharks. Current WA proposals are broadly similar to existing and historical Australian shark control programs.

But they are controversial both because they are a new strategy for this region and also because they will target Great White Sharks, currently protected as endangered species due to their naturally rare occurrence and low rate of reproduction which make them vulnerable to population collapse.

Community Reaction in Western Australia

Although the new laws in Western Australia have been claimed to be a "shark mitigation strategy," many community activists are effectively calling it a culling procedure.

WA Premier Colin Barnett stated,

"I don't know if it's a cull as such – and maybe that means different things to different people – but I certainly acknowledge that the public is demanding that sharks, where they stay around popular swimming or surfing areas, should be destroyed. I'm in that camp."

 The Greens have said their lawyers are beginning to look at ways to combat the new shark mitigation laws, effectively focusing on the legality of killing protected shark species and also the irregularities in the tender to maintain the shark drum lines.

Labor's fisheries spokesman Dave Kelly spoke against the "indiscriminate killing of sharks", but said legal options "were not immediately apparent".

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