Nets and culls are fair game on killer sharks | Caleb Bond

If a predator is stalking livestock we all know it cops a .303 in the head. No one bats an eyelid. Why are sharks special, asks Caleb Bond.

Humans deserve the right to safely swim in the sea without being chomped by a shark.

I don’t want to hear any victim-blaming arguments about how the water is the shark’s home.

So what? Do you think wildlife wasn’t killed or displaced to develop the land on which you now reside?

If a predator is stalking livestock we all know it cops a .303 in the head. No one bats an eyelid.

But when an actual person gets eaten by a Great White people fall over themselves to defend poor old Mr Shark – it’s not his fault, you were in his territory, etc.

Why is a shark’s life supposedly so sacred that it trumps even human life?

South Australia now holds the unenviable title of the world’s most dangerous waters with a third of the world’s fatal shark attacks last year.

If a shark attacks a person, and it is found, it should be killed.

Photo of a bull shark

Sharks that consistently hang around in waters where people swim, surf and kayak should be killed.

The homo sapien climbed to the top of the evolutionary tree.

We have adapted the landmass of the world to suit our needs – and the water should be no different.

Being the top dog on the block gives you special privileges.

We have ways of preventing encounters with sharks and we are well within our rights to use them.

Do you think if sharks developed the ability to survive on land and we were in their way that they wouldn’t eliminate us?

New South Wales has shark nets at 51 beaches up and down the east coast between Newcastle and Wollongong.

Since the nets were first introduced in 1937, there have been only 36 unprovoked shark encounters at those beaches.

Only one person has been killed and just 24 were otherwise injured.

They are obviously not a totally failsafe measure but, on those numbers, you cannot deny their success.

SA, however, doesn’t have a single shark net.

I know it would be difficult to net the entirety of SA’s coastline. But popular swimming and surfing spots should be netted as a matter of urgency.

Some 100 million sharks are killed globally every year, either as the main target or bycatch.

Delicious fillets of shark are battered or crumbed and served up as fish and chips in takeaway joints the length and breadth of this country.

That’s fine but if you say we should put up nets, which might kill a few hundred sharks, to prevent human deaths then you’re some kind of monster.

Human life is more important and will always be more important.

Any and all methods to prevent shark attacks – culling, nets or otherwise – should be used.