Manly Daily 22/4

[North Head]

Divers letter today to the Manly Daily.
what a Goose!

1 out ALL out


Grey nurse needs our help
AFTER attending a lecture at the Warringah Council Chambers the other evening on the plight of the vulnerable and harmless grey nurse shark, I felt compelled to inform and remind people of this beautiful shark's dire situation and the lack of concern or action shown by this State Government.
Way back in 1984 this shark species was classified as endangered and therefore given protection by the government of the day.
 However, due to man's impact on their environment, and more importantly the fact that people are still allowed to fish at the 16 known sites where these sharks gather, their numbers have continued to fall.
With only an estimated 300 to 500 grey nurse sharks left on the east coast of NSW, it is well and truly time for the State Government to take this situation seriously, stop pussyfooting around with critical habitats that you are allowed to fish in, along with Ian Macdonald's ridiculous test-tube birthing program, and ban fishing at these 16 sites.
 Being a diver and having dived at a number of these critical habitats, I have seen first-hand the damage that fish hooks, line and traces do to this so-called protected shark species. It truly breaks one's heart knowing that a harmless shark with a hook caught in its mouth is going to die a painful death of either starvation or blood poisoning.
 This irresponsible Government seems more concerned about a few votes from commercial and recreational fishermen than the certain extinction of this species. The only effective remedy to this terrible situation is to enforce a 1500m radius, total fishing ban at every critical habitat site on the coast of NSW.
Matthew Parsons, Curl Curl

[sandfly]

 Talk about idiotic rubbish. Maybe he only dives on days when 60% of the 300 to 500, his quoted number of grey nurse sharks, are congregated  at another site as observed and recorded by other divers. May be he didn't read the Court of Appeals  summary that suggested there are  more likely between 500 and 3000 or more grey nurse sharks.
  Why newspapers print this rubbish is beyond me. Then again we have to satisfy those mythical save the world unscientific findings of the radical greens.