With so much talk about keeping people safe from sharks and debates regarding what the best practices are in doing so; culling sharks, shark nets, drum lines, smart drum lines, shark tagging, shark monitoring, shark barriers and shark repellents, I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment and reflect upon what success looks like. Meaning, regardless of which of the aforementioned strategies is decided on, what is the actual goal. How do we define success? When can we say, we have achieved “Victory over Sharks”?
Several months ago I posted on social media the question, “What is the acceptable number of shark-bite-related human fatalities we should endure before we decide to wage war on sharks?” The goal was not to find a correct or exact number, but to cause people to think about what we are trying to solve. How many people actually know how many humans die as a result of shark bites annually. Many people think they know, but these answers range from zero to hundreds so clearly there’s a large margin of error. The question was really intended for the pro-cullers, the very vocal people shouting for shark culling, which in case you don’t know, is the intentional, government funded killing of sharks, whether they are protected or not. On one end of the spectrum you had people like me responding with “hippie and environmental” answers like, “there is no number, leave the sharks alone, it’s their home” and various other answers of that sort, but who I never got a number from were the pro-cullers. I would have accepted any number as an answer, zero, one, 5, 100, but no one would say an amount, They instead insisted on changing the topic completely or bashing on me personally. I suspect that once faced with providing that number they might have caught a glimpse at how ludicrous this entire notion of waging war on sharks is and that’s what I’m hoping you will hear as well when I present the same concept to you.
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When is the justified time to go to war with sharks and how do we know when we’ve won? By forcing someone, anyone, even you, to state a number in response to that question it forces a concrete examination of the issue rather than simply rambling a bunch of fear-mongering rhetoric about how we have to protect our children and that human life is more important than shark life.
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Who told you that going into the ocean SHOULD be considered a risk free event? Who planted that in your mind? Who told you that this is a risk free world? It’s not. Part of your daily commute involves the risk of car collisions, robbery, assault, falling, electrocution, etc. and you accept those risks day after day because you’ve learned to and been taught to perhaps just like those people in Africa whose paths cross with hippos as a part of an acceptable part of life. But not with sharks. The ocean is your vacation spot. The ocean is the centerpiece driving tourism to the hotels and businesses along the beach. It’s not an ecosystem. Sadly, now the ocean is a commodity and sharks interfere with that from time to time.
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Let’s look at Western Australia’s statistics during culling years vs. non culling years.
2006 - 0
2007 - 0
2008 - 1
2009 - 0
(Keep in mind the size of Western Australia and that there is 12,913 miles of coastline (including all the little islands and peninsulas, etc.).
2010 - 0
2011 - 3
2012 - 2
2013 - 1
2014 - 1
2015 - 0
2016 - 2
2006 - 0
2007 - 0
2008 - 1
2009 - 0
(Keep in mind the size of Western Australia and that there is 12,913 miles of coastline (including all the little islands and peninsulas, etc.).
2010 - 0
2011 - 3
2012 - 2
2013 - 1
2014 - 1
2015 - 0
2016 - 2
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You are comparing zero, zero, zero, one, one, zero, one and two, so you do not get anything that is particularly meaningful from a statistical perspective.
Likewise, Professor Jessica Meeuwig argued that the effectiveness of lethal measures cannot be considered proven due to the low number of incidents. With reference to the Queensland program, the professor reasoned: If you look at where the drum lines are, you see that 83 per cent of the drum lines are in locations where there never ever had been a fatality before they came in…To say, 'Oh, look: since we brought drum lines in there have not been any fatalities,' when there were never any there before is awkward. At Magnetic Island there was one in 1923, and since they brought in a massive number of drum lines, yes, there has not been one, but how do you compare zero and one?
Likewise, Professor Jessica Meeuwig argued that the effectiveness of lethal measures cannot be considered proven due to the low number of incidents. With reference to the Queensland program, the professor reasoned: If you look at where the drum lines are, you see that 83 per cent of the drum lines are in locations where there never ever had been a fatality before they came in…To say, 'Oh, look: since we brought drum lines in there have not been any fatalities,' when there were never any there before is awkward. At Magnetic Island there was one in 1923, and since they brought in a massive number of drum lines, yes, there has not been one, but how do you compare zero and one?
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CREDITS
Footage: Much of the culling footage which was provided by many good-hearted ocean warriors around the world, including, but not limited to Jonathan Clark, Allyson Jennings, Safia Maher, Rohan Sibon, Luke Eller, Pauly Sueters, Jenni Whitley, Tony Isaacson, Humpbacks and HighRrises, Sea Shepherd Australia, Sea Shepherd South Africa, No Shark Cull.
Thank you Donna Chapman for the infographics. Thank you Natalie Banks and Sharnie Connell for your research and ongoing fight. I want to acknowledge Dr. Jessica Meeuwig for first pointing out the correlation of these low numbers to random events and others, such as Dr. Chris Neff and Dr. Daryl McPhee, who contributed logic in this madness.
All other footage by Skyler Thomas. Written and edited by Skyler Thomas. Music by Tyler Newman.
Footage: Much of the culling footage which was provided by many good-hearted ocean warriors around the world, including, but not limited to Jonathan Clark, Allyson Jennings, Safia Maher, Rohan Sibon, Luke Eller, Pauly Sueters, Jenni Whitley, Tony Isaacson, Humpbacks and HighRrises, Sea Shepherd Australia, Sea Shepherd South Africa, No Shark Cull.
Thank you Donna Chapman for the infographics. Thank you Natalie Banks and Sharnie Connell for your research and ongoing fight. I want to acknowledge Dr. Jessica Meeuwig for first pointing out the correlation of these low numbers to random events and others, such as Dr. Chris Neff and Dr. Daryl McPhee, who contributed logic in this madness.
All other footage by Skyler Thomas. Written and edited by Skyler Thomas. Music by Tyler Newman.
