2016-02-26
The Australian Greens welcome news the co-founder and project manager for ‘Shark Spotters’, a successful non-lethal shark mitigation program from Cape Town, has been crowdfunded to visit Australia in early March.
“The Greens have long advocated for this initiative, which has worked successfully in Cape Town, South Africa for many years. I hope that the State Governments in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia seriously consider this initiative as part of a viable approach to protest ocean-users”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said.
“The co-founder of the highly successful Shark Spotter program will visit popular beaches across the country to check suitability for the program, I look forward to learning the outcomes. It would be fantastic to see this rolled out across the three states with high-risk areas.
“I look forward to attending the community forum in Perth in the coming weeks. I urge Western Australians that campaigned against the lethal drum line proposal in WA to attend, it is worth learning about this initiative.
WA Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren said that the community, rather than the State Government, had driven the development of positive and effective policies for shark hazard management in WA.
“Thanks to a largely volunteer effort by thousands of Western Australians and groups such as No WA Shark Cull, Sea Shepherd, Sharkspotters and others, we are moving towards better measures for both people using the water and the marine environment.”