State calls for shark cull bids
The State Government will not wait for environmental approval before it calls for bids from private contractors to carry out its proposed three-year shark cull.
It is ploughing ahead with plans to set drum lines to catch sharks next summer and will put out to tender two separate contracts to operate the gear in Perth and WA's South West this month.
Fisheries staff had to man drum lines off Perth during the 14-week trial this year after the fisherman who was awarded the contract pulled out after being threatened by opponents of the policy.
The architect of WA's drum-lines policy said the Government planned to award both three-year contracts to private operators but there was not enough time to wait for approval before starting the process.
"We are proposing to deploy the drum lines for another three years from November 15 to April 30 each year," the official, who asked not to be named, said.
"Now, I can wait for the environmental process to be completed then do a tender. If I do that, I'll give myself about four days in which to select. It's totally unreasonable."
He said the fishing contractor signed the contract and then decided to pull out the next day.
"We let him out of the contract because he was getting emails and phone calls to his home phone from people saying we understand you've got the contract and we want to tell you that's not appropriate," he said.
"We were left with the situation where we had to move on this quickly and that's when we got Fisheries into it."
The State Government needs permission from the Federal Government and the WA Environment Protection Authority to deploy up to 72 drum lines to catch great whites, a protected species, and other potentially dangerous sharks.
It expects to catch 25 great whites and 900 tiger sharks among other marine life over the next three years if it is allowed to deploy drum lines for 5 1/2 months every year.
WA began catching and killing sharks with drum lines in a 14-week trial earlier this year after analysing attack prevention measures in other countries.
An official visited South Africa last week to see how the Kwazulu-Natal Sharks Board operates its nets and drum lines. The province's Environment Minister Mike Mabuyakhulu revealed they expected to finalise a non-lethal method to replace nets and drum lines in about two years.
"We think we might be on the eve of coming up with a highly innovative solution that might actually become a problem-solver not only for our coastline but for the world over," he said.
"It would protect and grow the number of sharks and reduce the numbers caught in the nets and the like so we can remove those sorts of things for new innovations."
Kwazulu-Natal Sharks Board head of operations Mike Anderson-Reade said it was an electronic barrier that used similar technology to the shark deterrent devices worn by some surfers and divers.
