Grey Nurse vs Mullet!

Source.

Cool.

The Grey Nurse of Australia's East Coast population are listed as critically endangered. 

Story here - enjoy!

New South Wales - WTF?

Are we in for more of this shit? Source.

Remember that horrible woman, Katrina Hodgkinson?

The one that stripped the NSW Grey Nurse Sharks of their protection, only to have to back-track in the face of overwhelming condemnation of her reckless actions?

Well, she's at it again.

Whilst Australia shines with its new network of Marine Parks, Hodgkinson is continuing to pander to the Fishers and Shooters Party and opening the marine parks of NSW to the recreational anglers - this all very much unsurprisingly and very much anticipated, and once again prematurely and unilaterally without even waiting for the recommendations by her newly appointed panel. This follows NSW's Premier O'Farrell's controversial decision to open NSW's national parks to recreational shooters.

Story here.

The question being,

will this reckless stupidity encompass the GNS aggregation sites and once again endanger their survival?

Keep watching this space!

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - better than expected!

Well it was about bloody time!

There has been a decision.

Katrina Hodgkinson has announced new protection measures for the critically endangered Grey Nurse Sharks in NSW. What the articles fail to mention is that the GNS were adequately protected before the same Ms. Hodgkinson stripped that protection to please her recreational fishermen friends, and that the new protection measures are weaker than the original ones!

The puppies of the ocean? Boy, talk about total hypocrisy!!

So, it had to come down to a compromise.

Fishermen may not use baited hooks, the principal cause for the incidental mortality of GNS in the key aggregation zones - and that's definitely good news.

In exchange, the total fishing bans have been revoked and the anglers may now encroach in the aggregation sites that are teeming with fish that's why the sharks are there, they're good fishing spots and so that was locking fishermen out of a lot of good fishing habitat.

What a lot of baloney - the sites are teeming with fish precisely because the anglers had been locked out and not overfished them like elsewhere!

No wonder they are so happy!

Anyway, as I said, it's better than I expected.

Also, serendipity has it that I was talking about this to a local insider two days ago, and she informs me that a recent census has revealed approx. 1,500 Sharks - less than the required critical mass of approx. 5,000 but still a notable increase over the past.

Baby step by baby step...

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - WTF?

This Grey Nurse Shark is going to die.



The culprit?
Forget the individual fisherman - this is the direct consequence of Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson's decision to undermine the protection of the GNS in order to please her recreational angler friends.
The submission period has long closed, the results have long been published (analysis here) and despite of the unequivocal results, the NSW Government is still prevaricating citing the need for further consultations, or whatever.

This is what the public has demanded - click for details.

See any room for interpretation, or any need for further consultations?
What part of re-instate and increase the Grey Nurse Shark protection, now! do those people not understand?
Like in Queensland, it is time to hold them accountable.
Here are all the relevant e-mail addresses.

Oh and I nearly forgot: please be polite...
Or not!

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - one last Push please!

Critically endangered on the east coast of Australia - but who cares, right?

Well done Katrina Hodgkinson!
NSW's inept Minister for Primary Industries has overturned the fishing ban around Fish Rock and the fishermen have come back in droves - and the Grey Nurse Sharks are once again being hurt in the process.
This according to this article and having asked, it is precisely so!

The question being, does Katrina give a F.
Most likely not. She has been voted in with the support of the Fishers and Shooters party and lemme tellya, having seen an interview with their positively rabid president, that's a seriously nasty, seriously vocal bunch of people who will fight hard for what they perceive as being their godgiven right to reap and pillage wherever they please, and F the future and especially, F anybody trying to establish marine protected areas!
That's her constituency and that's the mind set that is driving her actions.

Will there be transparency?
Will the Ministry publish the results of their consultations or will they hide behind processes, meetings and committees whilst the fishermen continue to ravage the GNS aggregation sites?
Anybody taking bets?

Anyway.
All we can do is do what we can do, i.e. participate in the consultation and tell those people that we do not agree with what is going on. Please check out these posts where you can find various templates and tips for writing the most effective submission.
The review will close this Friday, August 26.

Vinaka!

PS - and true to her calling, she has now appointed an independent panel investigating the need, or not for Marine Parks. Check out the terms of reference & u can see where this is going.
Just great aint it.

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - thank you Shark Defenders!

Shark Defenders have posted this action alert.

Please do submit your testimony.
Australia's Grey Nurse Sharks are critically endangered and it is imperative that we counteract the pressure by the NSW fishing lobby who wants to encroach on their aggregation sites. As SD correctly points out, individual testimonies are generally more effective than copy/pasting templates or joining petitions.
Submission close on Friday, August 26.

Vinaka!

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - awesome Op Ed!

Please click once, then once again for detail!

Bravo Dive Log - talk about telling it like it is!
Please do submit your comment - for once, it really counts! Recommendations for how to proceed here and here.
Submission close on Friday, August 26.

Thanks Dave for the heads up!

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks: Bravo PADI!

I must say, I'm increasingly impressed by PADI Asia Pacific.
The team of Mike Holme has been nothing short of stellar whenever we have contacted them for assistance and advice, and now I learn that Project AWARE has thrown its weight behind the campaign aimed at restoring adequate protection for New South Wales' highly vulnerable stocks of GNS after the latest shameful fiasco.

Please read this appeal and please, do act now.
This is industry leadership and I am particularly happy to find an excellent letter that contains all the recommendations I've posted here. This is terribly urgent and important, the more as all the science shows that for all practical purposes, depleted Shark stocks have no real chance of rebounding once they get wiped out as that would take decades if not centuries, i.e. way beyond any reasonable time frame - and I trust that I don't need to remind you of the consequences for the marine environment including the future of those ignorant fishermen!

The GNS stocks are literally on the brink and we simply cannot afford to get this wrong.
The only way we can avert this ecological catastrophe is to show those inept politicians and their rabid cronies from the Fishers and Shooters party that the public wants nothing to do with their appalling disregard of the health of the environment.

Please, do write a letter now.
Please send a copy to David at david.roe@projectaware.org.au and please, do mobilize your friends. Bloggers, please do re-post.
Submission close on Friday, August 26.
Once again, kudos to PADI.

PS Thank you Richard, much appreciated!

Australia's GNS - thank you Shark Savers and Underwater Thrills!

Hopefully, this is going to create some traction.
Shark Savers have very graciously posted this action alert about the situation of the Grey Nurse Sharks in New South Wales. Theirs is a seriously popular blog linking into a seriously popular Facebook page, very much like the always enormously helpful Underwater Thrills who have re-posted my piece pretty much straight away.

Hopefully, this combined fire power will translate into many comments!
This is a political, not a scientific debate (the science is rock solid and demands fishing bans) and many comments advocating a fishing ban at all GNS aggregation sites are likely to really make a difference!

Vinaka vakalevu, much appreciated!

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - Recommendations!

Hooked and permanently disfigured GNS

Sorry for the protracted silence.
We're currently extraordinarily busy, all good but very time consuming, and for the next couple of weeks, feeding the blog will unfortunately have to remain a low priority.

But this is important and urgent, so there.
Mark Gray has graciously posted some highly useful comments on my last post about the GNS. Mark is of course none other than the award winning dive pro of Sundive in Byron Bay and as such, he very much represents the POV of the Australian GNS dive community - and very likely, that of the scientific community with whom they collaborate as well. These are the people who dive with and photograph those GNS and who regularly try and rescue them when they fall victim to the local fishermen.
Here's another one of those stories, and the according video.



Anyway, here's the situation in a nutshell - please consult the links.
Following the election of a new pro-fishing Minister, the fishing ban around Fish Rock and Green Island has been revoked pending the result of a public consultation. The NSW Department of Primary Industries has published a discussion paper and there are an online page and a submission form where one can post comments.

This is principally about Fish Rock and Green Island.
Here's an older video by Mark showing the aggregation of Fish Rock which is very much one of the most important such sites needing urgent comprehensive protection!



Other sites are rather well protected, but in South West Rocks, the closest community on the coast, there is a strong fishing lobby that has convinced the Minister to repeal the recent protection at those iconic dive sites. At the same time, the Department is looking at unifying and streamlining the rules governing all the known aggregation sites of the GNS, namely

• Julian Rocks (Byron Bay),
• Fish Rock (South West Rocks),
• Green Island (South West Rocks),
• The Pinnacle (Forster),
• Big and Little Seal Rocks (South of Forster),
• Little Broughton Island (North of Port Stephens),
• Magic Point (Maroubra – Sydney),
• Bass Point (Shellharbour),
• Tollgate Islands (Batemans Bay),
• Montague Island (Narooma)

some of which are Commonwealth Marine Reserves and some of which, like Fish Rock and Green Island, are merely declared to be Critical Habitats, see the map in the discussion paper. The paper lists further major aggregation sites that are currently not being protected.

Please, help those Sharks by submitting your comments.
From my discussion with Mark and others, the following may be a good way to go about it. Keep in mind that the GNS are already protected in NSW. This is about protecting them against accidental injury when they take the hooks of fishermen who target other Fishes. I am being told that it would be useful if your submission would include the following requests - ask for the maximum keeping in mind that the political process will likely result in some sort of weaker compromise.

• That Fish Rock and Green Island be declared a Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR).
• That Mermaid Reef and South Solitary Islands be recognized as Critical Habitats (CH).
• Citing the unequivocal scientific data that reveal the extraordinarily vulnerability of GNS to injury by fishing gear, that all recreational fishing (there are other rules governing commercial fishing) be banned from all known GNS aggregation sites (list them as per above) regardless of whether they are CMR, CH or not yet protected.

The online submission form does not have provision for opinions from overseas.
This is obviously biased as a lot of overseas visitors come and visit Fish Rock and Green Island as it has been commented that its one of the top Australian Dive Sites.
The following suggestions have been made for submission from overseas

• The zip code of 2431 is the post code for South West Rocks which is the nearest town and port for those visiting Fish Rock and also the home of the biased fishermen also. Maybe as part of the counting of submission those from the “local” communities may have more weight.
• Another option is to put down care of South West Rocks Dive Centre, Gregory St, South West Rocks, NSW 2431.

OK this is basically it.
It reflects what I understand will be most useful and most effective - but if anybody in the know wants to propose another modus operandi, please do not hesitate to correct me!I have to rely in what I am being told, am not a party and have no hidden agendas, and merely want to assist in the best possible way.

Vinaka vakalevu!

PS: thank you Brendan for providing for this link to the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

PS2: Petition here. My intuition tells me that having many people write unique personal comments directly to the Department of Primary Industries as per the above is likely to be more effective than having one single org, however reputable, forwarding the opinions of many people. But to each his own.

NSW Grey Nurse Sharks - Leadership please!

Permanently disfigured GNS, Fish Rock - just one of many injured Sharks.

Ms Hodgkinson will obviously not be swayed.
Her appalling decision to repeal the fishing ban around Fish Rock and Green Island stands and it is time to move on and to focus on the future.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries has started its public consultation.
I have read the discussion paper and must commend whoever has authored it for having produced a comprehensive and equitable representation of the issue at hand. As always, it is rather complicated and in essence pits Shark conservation against the interests of the aquatic user groups.

Now, before anybody starts being active.
This is not about screaming, wait for it: No Sharks, No Oxygen, No Future! in order to educate the NSW government and convince them to enact protection for the GNS. Very much thanks to the advocacy by Valerie, GNS are already a protected species in NSW and in several other Australian states.
From what I understand, and please do correct me if I'm wrong, this is about balancing the high vulnerability of GNS to harassment and accidental hooking against the totally legitimate aspirations of the fishermen but also other aquatic recreationists, see the example of the underwater scooters, to have access to the ocean. It is also about identifying and protecting the most critical GNS habitats and about eliminating inconsistencies in the rules governing the utilization of those areas. In essence, this is a question of zoning and resource management.
As I said, this is complicated and finding solutions will inevitably imply a high degree of knowledge about specific local circumstances.

From what I can sense, the cards are not stacked in our favor.
The track record clearly shows that the "other" side is well organized and politically well connected, and I fully expect their submissions to be well coordinated, well presented and smart. As a minimum, the submissions by the Shark protection advocates need to be equally impressive and not just a motley collection of ideas and opinions, however brilliant - and right now, this is where it appears to be heading, with different advocates urging the public to please write something.
That is just not quite good enough.

With that in mind, there is an urgent need for leadership.
Could somebody in the know please step up and co-ordinate the conservation effort.
Maybe draft several well supported templates for submissions by the different stated Australian interest groups (but also including one for Shark diving tourists!) and post them online. Or maybe, draft a new specific campaign letter (this one is probably too general) to which Shark advocates can adhere.
I'm just suggesting, maybe there are other more effective strategies.

Possible candidates?
Maybe the Nature Conservation Council of NSW? Maybe the concerned dive operators? Maybe the good folks of Spot a Shark? Maybe (probably not!) a political party? Maybe one of the Australian Shark research institutions? Maybe one of the global Shark conservation NGOs, maybe via a local proxy? Maybe a coalition of some of the above?

Consultations end on August 26.
That's not a lot of time for coordinating a unified and effective campaign and for then collecting a multitude of pro-Shark comments by the public.

Can somebody please step up to the plate.

New South Wales - Action, please!

Upset about the pic?
Here are several more!

From the website of the Game Fishing Association Australia, no less!

All line fishing methods that use hooks have the potential to harm grey nurse sharks.
Grey nurse sharks will take baited hooks and can also become hooked if they take a fish being played on line fishing gear regardless of whether bait or artificial lures have been used. However, the use of wire trace for bottom fishing and setlines has been identified as the most harmful fishing method to grey nurse sharks. Many sharks can be seen with fishing gear, such as hooks, caught in their jaws and line trailing from their mouth and gills. Autopsies of grey nurse sharks have found that hooks can become embedded in the throat and stomach, and can puncture the shark’s large liver. This can lead to bacterial infection, septicaemia (blood poisoning) and ultimately death.

From the paper.

Grey nurse sharks clearly interact with static baits deployed close to their aggregations.
All bait types were taken at all times of day, and grey nurse sharks were the only bait-takers after dusk. Even the least taken bait types resulted in frequent (10%) shark interactions, demonstrating that bottom-set baits pose a high interaction risk when deployed around grey nurse shark aggregations.

From the website of the NSW Government (!).

Areas that are known to be used for feeding and breeding are considered important for the survival of a threatened species. Some of these areas may be declared as critical habitat, such as the grey nurse shark areas along the NSW coast.

Hook and line fishing in areas important for survival has negative impacts on many threatened native species including Grey nurse shark (endangered).

Hook and line fishing can impact upon threatened species by causing damage to the mouth of fishes, which may impact on feeding behaviour and feeding success. The effects of fish hooks can be more serious over a longer time if retained in the mouth, throat and stomach of fishes and sharks, and ultimately can lead to death. Even though it is illegal to take a threatened species, these species are still being harmed by hook and line fishing, as evidenced by grey nurse sharks and black cod seen with hooks in their mouths.

While listing all hook and line fishing throughout NSW waters as a KTP is impractical and unwarranted, particular sites, such as known aggregation sites, spawning areas, important juvenile habitats and feeding areas, are of critical importance for the survival of threatened species. Some of these areas, but not all, are listed as critical habitat areas under NSW Fisheries legislation.
Any activity that could kill or adversely affect threatened fish species in these critical areas should be considered a threatening process and managed accordingly.

The new Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson could not care less.
In clear contravention of the precautionary principle and pending some re-assessment, or whatever, she is revoking the new fishing ban around Fish Rock and Green Island. I've blogged about it here, and here are more details on the Grey Nurse Blog.

Here is Ms Hodgkinson's e-mail along with that of her boss the PM.
If you live in NSW and are thus a member of their constituency, you may want to write and tell them what you think about this utter fiasco, or you can also sign up to this campaign by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.

I know too little about Ozzie politics to give any advice to people from outside of NSW or Australia.
Best drop a line to Peter Hitchins and staff of the Southwest Rock Dive Center, or contact the FishRock Dive Center and ask them about the best way to proceed.

Vinaka Vakalevu!