Endangered sharks killed on drumlines on Great Barrier Reef

ANIMAL welfare groups have shared footage of endangered sharks falling victim to Queensland’s “outdated” attempts to keep them away from our beaches. WARNING: Graphic

SHOCKING footage has emerged of endangered sharks being killed off the coast of Queensland.

Images obtained from the Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) show endangered sharks are being caught up in drumlines which are being used as part of the Queensland’s Shark Control Program.

These images were taken in August off the coast of Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, picturing two dead scalloped hammerheads which are listed as ‘endangered’ under the International Union for Conservation of Union.

AMCS Fisheries and Threatened Species campaign manager Tooni Mahto said it highlighted the outdated use of drumlines as part of the government’s shark control program.

“This footage highlights the outdated and myopic attitudes towards sharks by successive Queensland Governments,” she said.

“They have been using the same, ineffective, lethal methods since the 1960s. It is past time for a change in our views of sharks and a change in policy to reflect that.”

Conservation groups have shared video of the brutal death of two endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks on the Great Barrier Reef.

Humane Society International head of campaigns Nicola Beynon said threatened species were also being caught up in drumlines in the Great Barrier Reef.

“Lethal drumlines are an old and ineffective method of bather protection,” she said.

“They catch and kill hundreds of non-target marine animals in the Great Barrier Reef, as these new shocking images show. Our sharks and our Reef deserve so much better than this. Lethal drumlines provide nothing more than a completely false sense of security, at the expense of the lives of threatened species that are crucial to our Great Barrier Reef ecosystem.”

The Humane Society International is currently engaged in legal action against the QLD Government and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for shark culling on lethal drumlines within the World Heritage-listed reef.

Represented by Environmental Defenders Office (EDO NSW), Humane Society International is arguing that the Shark Control Program, which allows 173 lethal drumlines to operate within the Great Barrier Reef, is inconsistent with the main objective of the Marine Park, which is “to provide for the long term protection and conservation of the environment, biodiversity and heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef Region.”