Over the past three years seven people have been killed by shark attacks of the coast of Western Australia. The government is taking several steps to combat the shark situation of the coastline. The first step that is starting to cause quite a bit of controversy is a culling program that has been put in place over the past week.
Culling is the process of removing a breeding animal, such as Great White Sharks, from a complete population of animals. The program that is currently being implemented is boats using a large fishing line with dozens of hooks connected to it. The hooks are connected to barrels and then loaded with dead fish to try and lure the large sharks. The hooks will pierce sharks and kill them.
This program is hearing quite a bit of complaints from animal activists about this recent culling process. People are saying how the hooking could be lodged in these sharks for hours and hours even after they are dead.
Another program that has been in place for the last several years is tagging many of these Great White Sharks in search of tracking where these dangerous predators are in relation to popular beaches throughout the coastline. Satellite linked monitors can track the sharks as well making some of the beaches much more safe for beach goers. Along with the satellites, seabed monitors are working together to find even more accurate readings of these scary sea monsters.
Hopefully the shark attacks will soon be controlled and the tourism of the land down under will remain unharmed.