Email the Queensland Fisheries Minister | Protect Queensland's Migrating Whales

Email the Queensland Fisheries Minister

Send a message to the Queensland Minister for Fisheries the Hon Mark Furner, asking him to remove all shark nets and drumlines during the whale migration season and look to replace the program with modern, non-lethal shark bite mitigation measures.

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I am writing to request that you make a public commitment to remove Queenslands’s shark nets from local beaches during whale migration season in 2023. Removing the nets during whale migration has been supported by the Shark Control Program’s Scientific Working Group for over 2 years, and supported by the independent report that was commissioned by your department in 2019.

Removing shark nets during whale migration season is supported by years of science, expert advice and by the communities that have them at their local beaches. Your department has had years with this advice, and I am asking that you finally act upon it and make this decision.

Every year, we see whales get hopelessly entangled at our beaches, and every year these events are preventable. Official figures state that eighty-one whales have been caught in shark nets in Queensland since 2001. This number does not reflect the number of whales entangled in Queensland shark nets that manage to free themselves - only the numbers seen by members of the public and require attendance by rescuers.

As we saw in August last year at Coolangatta, not every whale that becomes entangled can be completely freed from entanglement. This constitutes a death sentence for the whale. Even for whales that are freed, their likelihood of survival is unknown.

This is unacceptable when we have the means to stop this from happening.

There really is no excuse now that we have viable non-lethal mitigation technologies that would provide actual beach safety rather than the placebo effect of shark nets and drumlines.

Your government already has so much in place that would facilitate effective change on this issue. You have trials in place that just need that extra push into permanent placement. Your department commissioned a report on non-lethal technologies that demonstrates the current availability of effective technologies. Non-government organisations have provided you with a costed analysis of that report that demonstrates that the difference between current expenditure (on shark nets and drumlines) and their replacement with drones and barriers would be negligible over a few short years.

Removing shark nets from Queensland waters during whale migration is a simple and immediate decision that you can make to demonstrate that your department is willing to start responding to the best advice possible to ensure the protection of beachgoers and our ocean environment.

This matter has gone on for far too long and is beyond a matter of urgency as whales travel past our shores.

It’s time for #NetsOutNow.

Sincerely,

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