Shark Net Protest at Quicksilver Pro Surfing comp Coolangatta

MEDIA RELEASE  13-3-2018

Shark Net Protest at Quicksilver Pro Surfing comp Coolangatta

Members of north coast marine conservation groups will converge on the Quicksilver Pro Surfing competition at Coolangatta at midday Qld time, (1 pm NSW time) on Wednesday the 14th of March to hold up banners asking for the removal of Shark Nets.

Co-ordinator of the protest, Dean Jefferys, from the Migaloo 2 marine conservation Foundation said “The Quicksilver Pro Surfing competition is the obvious place to hold a Shark Net protest as many surfers are concerned both about being safe while surfing and also wanting to live in harmony with other marine creatures. Snapper Rocks is flanked by a string of shark nets that have killed hundreds of marine creatures since their placement.”

Jefferys said “I believe surfers are being called to be the guardians of the ocean and its creatures. Its hard to understand that there are some surfers who still believe the shark nets are a good thing and the deaths of 1000s of marine creatures justifies their fear of sharks. The yellow bouys you see behind the line up at Snapper Rocks are shark nets that go for around 150 meters along the surface in a straight line and 4 meters down. Sharks can just swim under or around them yet they still manage to catch and kill many dolphins, turtles, rays, whales, and endangered sharks. We want to raise the issue about the ineffectiveness of the current shark net program and offer more effective and non lethal alternatives to help prevent humans having an unwanted shark encounter. Since 1950 there have been over 16,500 marine creatures killed in these shark nets in NSW and QLD, over 5000 of them endangered or critical endangered. Shark nets do not offer the safety from sharks they profess and actually may make a shark encounter more likely as they give a false sense of security. Cheaper and more effective alternative technologies currently exist that make the public safer without increasing the dangers to other marine life. They include, the Spotters Program, Personal repellents, Sonar, Shark tagging, Education and the use of drones for spotting. Drones have recently been deployed by NSW, SLSC with great effect and Queensland Government should follow and give a drone to every surf club. This would be a lot safer for surfers than shark nets as the drones not only provide realtime observation and warning, they also double as a quick response unit to help prevent drownings by dropping a floatation device from the drone as demonstrated in a successful rescue at Lennox Head a few months ago.”

To contact Dean Jefferys for comment call 0467485903 and see www.migaloo2.com or talk to us by the main surfers building at Snapper Rocks Coolangatta on the day around midday. Also see and use footage of Dean Jefferys swimming under the shark nets at Lennox Head. Drop box https://www.dropbox.com/s/95cliifoadlv76g/clips%20sharks%20comp.mov?dl=0

Protest at Shark nets being deployed around Ballina

Hammerhead Shark catches NSW Premier Mike Baird in Shark net.

“SHARK NET; MEDIA RELEASE 18-11-2016.

Today North Coast Marine conservation groups and marine lovers came together today at Ballina’s Light house Beach, to let the NSW Premier, Mike Baird know that they don’t want the rope Shark nets installed off Ballina’s beaches or anywhere along the Australian coast line. The 60 Marine conservationist chanted No Shark Nets while the Premier spoke to the media. After talking briefly to some of the people present and while leaving the area, Dean Jefferys, dress in a Hammerhead Shark costume wrapped Mike Baird in a net. Dean Jefferys said “I did this to give the Premier an opportunity to experience what it is like to be a marine creature trapped in a shark net. The Premier was lucky, he wasn’t tangled up underwater unable to breathe, like the 16500 marine creatures that have died in the last 65 years in NSW waters because of these indiscriminate killing nets. 4773 endangered Hammerhead shark are part of the 12000 marine creatures killed as non targeted species in these shark nets 6 pm
Hammerhead Shark catches Mike Baird in Shark net.

Drone operator, Dean Jefferys, who is also skipper of marine conservation yacht Migaloo 2 said “We have the technology and resources to reduce dramatically the chance of an unwanted encounter with a shark yet the Premier, Mike Baird prefers to go against his own scientific advice and install these outdated indiscriminate killing nets. A volunteer based group called Shark watch recently had to rely on funding from Byron Council to do shark spotting with a drone which was one solution recommended to Mike Baird from his scientific team. Instead of supporting innovative shark spotting programs like this, the Premier has decided to pander to some ill informed surfers, noisy locals and business operators. He will squander probably Millions of dollars on nets and maintenance that could go into other more effective methods of shark control that don’t indiscriminately kill local and migrating marine life.”

“Shark nets are purely cosmetic to convince tourists and locals they are “safe”. There is no scientific evidence that the shark nets actually make swimmers safer. Sharks can swim over, under, and around the nets and are often caught on the inside while leaving the netted area. Referencing data from the NSW Shark Meshing Program there were 16,696 deaths of marine creatures from 1959 to 2014. See attached data sheet. Sharks play an important role in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem and should not be seen as the monster that Jaws made them out to be 40 years ago. Its time to move on from this fear based movie set and get with the times”

“The New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said the locations to install the nets were chosen after a process of community consultation yet there was not one question in the “community consultation” survey that asked if the community actually wanted the shark nets or not. It was as I assumed, carefully chosen questions to give the impression that they consulted with the community yet in reality it was the same as Metgasco version of the CSG “community consultation”.” see FB event https://www.facebook.com/events/216224188816361/