Saturday, September 22, 2012

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - better than expected!


Well it was about bloody time!

There has been a decision.
Katrina Hodgkinson has announced new protection measures for the critically endangered Grey Nurse Sharks in NSW. What the articles fail to mention is that the GNS were adequately protected before the same Ms. Hodgkinson stripped that protection to please her recreational fishermen friends, and that the new protection measures are weaker than the original ones!
The puppies of the ocean? Boy, talk about total hypocrisy!!

So, it had to come down to a compromise.
Fishermen may not use baited hooks, the principal cause for the incidental mortality of GNS in the key aggregation zones - and that's definitely good news.
In exchange, the total fishing bans have been revoked and the anglers may now encroach in the aggregation sites that are teeming with fish that's why the sharks are there, they're good fishing spots and so that was locking fishermen out of a lot of good fishing habitat.
What a lot of baloney - the sites are teeming with fish precisely because the anglers had been locked out and not overfished them like elsewhere!
No wonder they are so happy!

Anyway, as I said, it's better than I expected.
Also, serendipity has it that I was talking about this to a local insider two days ago, and she informs me that a recent census has revealed approx. 1,500 Sharks - less than the required critical mass of approx. 5,000 but still a notable increase over the past.

Baby step by baby step...

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