MEDIA STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
Date: 8th June 2016
How to stop shark attacks in WA
Dr Mark Imisides, the Christian Democrats’ Lead Senate Candidate in WA, applauds the West Australian’s decision to highlight the issue of shark attacks with a provocative front page on its Wednesday edition.
There have been the same number of fatal shark attacks in WA since the year 2000 as there have been in all the state’s recorded history prior to that. It is clear that if something is not done it is only a matter of time before our beach culture will be a thing of the past. For many of us that has already happened.
The Christian Democratic Party has called for an overhaul of governmental and public attitudes regarding the safety of swimmers at our beaches with respect to shark attacks.
In particular the CDP has called on the federal government to review the protected status of great whites, with a view to reopening the fishing zone from Bunbury to Lancelin. In other words, the CDP calls for scientific answers – not political ones – to the following questions:
- Have Great Whites numbers recovered sufficiently to lift the protected status?
- What restrictions should be placed on the hunting of Great Whites to ensure that they do not assume an endangered status again? That is, as with other fish, what size limits, numbers, and seasonal restrictions should be applied to achieve this goal?
- If open season were declared on Great Whites, and they were hunted to extinction, what effect, if any, would that have on the ecology of the oceans?
Authorised by Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC [NSW] (CDP Federal President), Christian Democratic Party, 1 Wentworth St Parramatta 2150
