NT’s foremost crocodile expert Professor Grahame Webb says salties need to be made ‘extinct’ in Darwin Harbour

ONE of the world’s leading crocodile conservation experts says new practices need to be considered to eradicate salties from Darwin Harbour, including shooting them if necessary

Professor Grahame Webb, one of the world’s leading crocodile experts, says new practices need to be used to eradicate salties from Darwin Harbour, including shooting them if necessary

ONE of the world’s leading crocodile conservation experts says new practices need to be considered to eradicate salties from Darwin Harbour, including shooting them if necessary.

Professor Grahame Webb from Crocodylus Park called for a revamp of crocodile management practices after more than 300 crocodiles were removed from Darwin Harbour for the second straight year in 2018.

“It sounds strange to people but the object of this issue is to make crocodiles extinct in Darwin Harbour for public safety reasons, and we’ve been unable to do it,” he said.

Parks and Wildlife Rangers removed 307 crocodiles from Darwin Harbour in 2018 after a record haul of 344 in 2017.

Professor Webb said it was important crocodile management did “not just become an institutionalised program like a cleaning contract” and said shooting crocodiles could be more effective and cost-efficient than trapping them.

“Is trapping really the most efficient way of keeping people safe? It’s not about an animal welfare problem at all, and the crocs that get caught in the traps, most of them go out and get to a farm and get rolled anyway,” he said.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the goal is a public safety goal not an exercise in catching crocodiles.

Professor Grahame Webb is one of the world’s foremost croc experts: ‘ ... the object of this issue is to make crocodiles extinct in Darwin Harbour’. Picture: Ivan Rachman

“There’s all sorts of technologies today that are around that can be used with crocs. They’re basically using the same technologies that we were using 20 and 30 years ago. You’ve got highly efficient people doing it but there’s no technological input into it anymore.

“In Florida they take 6000 problem alligators out a year and they have trappers that are employed to do that and they have all sorts of protocols, they catch them mainly on a fishing hook type thing that they set, pull them up and then just shoot them, and then they go in and get processed in their skin and meat.”

Asked if he thought today’s society would be able to cope with the idea of shooting crocodiles, Professor Webb said:

“Well they’re just going to bloody have to aren’t they? You can’t turn around and allocate massive amounts of money to looking after a crocodile somewhere because someone in Sydney thinks that’s the way, when we need whatever money we have here — and it’s pretty scarce up here at the moment — to go into priority things up here. You can’t squander the money on non-essential issues just to try and be politically correct.”

Professor Webb said he opposed widespread culling but said it was important to remove the small percentage of crocodiles in areas inhabited by humans to prevent an over-reaction from politicians in the event of a fatal attack that could have major consequences for the crocodile industry.

“The worst thing that happens when there is an attack are kneejerk political reactions,” he said.

“These are serious animals they bring great benefits to the Northern Territory but we’ve got an obligation to make sure people understand it and know what’s going on.”

Parks and Wildlife ranger Tommy Nichols said it was important for Territorians to be vigilant whenever they go near the water.

“If you are fishing stay back from the water’s edge and if you are walking the dog on the beach also stay back and just be careful. If you do sight a crocodile, we have a 24-hour crocodile call out number or call the police if you can’t get in touch with us,” he said.