News

The controversial shark cull proposed by the Western Australia government has been rejected by the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The announcement that the Australian EPA advised against the cull is welcome news to shark conservationists as well as many ordinary folk following the saga, who will see the move as common sense. The proposal for the cull called for more than 70 hooks over nearly a mile to catch great white sharks—a species blamed for biting several swimmers over recent years. The government estimated the cull would kill an estimated 25 great white sharks in three months.

The EPA, however, denounced the strategy, claiming “there remained too much uncertainty in the available information and evidence about the south-western white shark population, population trends and the bycatch from commercial fisheries.”

The sharks aren’t quite out of the water yet, as the ultimate decision is still yet to be made in October by Western Australia’s environment minister, Albert Jacobs. Strong international opposition might just provide the final push to end the possibility of an extended cull.