Greg Pickering says WA Fisheries shark research lacks competency
while I don't want to rubbish fisheries I
totally agree with this piece below from greg pickering
hezzy
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/greg-pickering-says-wa-fisheries-shark-research-lacks-competency/news-story/0968e4c91ba960f368fb88b0f5130c25
Greg Pickering says WA Fisheries shark research lacks competency
TREVOR PADDENBURG, PerthNow
October 2, 2016 12:00am
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A TWO-TIME shark attack survivor has questioned the “competency” of WA Fisheries research into white shark numbers saying it fails to consult those who encounter the animals most.
Greg Pickering said any study of great white shark numbers needed to involve veteran spearfishing and fishing enthusiasts as well as abalone divers and commercial fishermen.
“I’ve got to question their competency,” said Mr Pickering, a veteran of 34 years as an abalone diver and spearfisherman who survived 10 hours of surgery to his face and chest after he was bitten by a great white shark during a dive 180km east of Esperance in 2013.
“People have stopped listening to Fisheries because they keep saying, ‘Our data doesn’t show any increase in numbers’. But maybe it’s the way they collect their data.
“I’ve been attacked by a shark twice, spent half my life in the water, kept records of everything I’ve seen on every dive since 1983 but I’ve never had a call or an email.
“There are a lot of guys with 30 or 40 years in the field with significant information to contribute. They’re in the water every day. You can’t pay for that sort of field work. But (Fisheries) feel they don’t need to talk to us because we don’t have a letter in front of our name saying, ‘Doctor so and so’.”
Greg Pickering a few months after the shark attack. Picture: Channel 7
Mr Pickering, who was also bitten by a 1.5m bronze whaler near Cervantes in 2004, said he and every diver he knew had no doubt white shark numbers were increasing.
“Talk to people who go diving and they just laugh at the suggestion there hasn’t been an increase in white sharks,” he said.
That was echoed by Bluewater Freedivers of WA president Barry Paxman, who fended off a 5m great white with his speargun off Two Rocks in 2014. Mr Paxman said keen freedivers were encountering an average of three or four white sharks a year.
“Thirty years ago you never saw one, but in the last five years I’ve seen quite a number and in the last 2-3 years it’s ramped up even more,” the veteran diver said.
“Freedivers could have a lot of input (to the Fisheries research). The fact is these sharks are apex predators, they’re not being caught anymore, and they are breeding. We will see more attacks.”
WA Beaches
His comments come after a four-year investigation of WA’s great white shark population — commissioned in 2012 after a spate of shark attacks — has left Fisheries experts with no idea whether numbers are going up or down.
The report used shark lifespan data and catch records to model the white shark population but the models varied greatly, suggesting anything from a seven per cent a year increase since great whites were protected in 1997 to a 10 per cent overall decline.
Fisheries Department executive director of research Dr Rick Fletcher said spearfishing and fishing enthusiasts were not consulted as part of the research, although he said the reconstructed catch histories of white sharks included in the report were largely based on interviews with commercial fishermen, and their perception of white shark abundance was noted in the report.
Mr Fletcher said since 2007 commercial abalone divers were also required to report observations of white sharks in their logbooks.
Fisheries Minister Joe Francis said factors such as improved fish stock management, marine park proposals and sea lion exclusion zones meant there would be more prey for great whites and it was likely they will become more common.
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
O rilly?
Who'd a thought?
been telling them that since the early noughties, when their claims of endangerment and the increasing massed numbers following our crayboats seemed to be, ahem, at odds....
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
total tools our goverment
if any 1 knows greg , ab diver for over 30 years , and has represented australia in spearfishing comps many times the bloke is a gun at what he does , why dont they listen to him and for Barry Paxman not much he dosent know about our west coast just because you dont have DR in front of your name your meens your not listened to
Me presonaly i believe tiger sharks are as big a danger as white sharks
clayd
Posts: 126
Date Joined: 07/12/15
Agree
100% Agree and it is something I've been saying for 15 years. There is a distinct divide between anecdotal evidence and research. Researchers consistently ignore what those with industry experience are telling them. Those with the anecdotal evidence don't have the research capabilities to substantiate their claims. So we go round in circles. Personally, I put the onous on researchers (who should be more intelligent) to break this poor communication cycle, but consistently fail to recognise this shortcoming.
When I was crayfishing, I used to have researchers come out on the boat, testing different baits, pots, etc... What they failed to understand were the subtlties that were involved. For example, in a line of 10 pots, I may have placed 7 hard on the reef, whilst the other 3 were on a softer weed edge - obviously thinking that the following day, i expect the crays to be found hard on the reef, but i would be slightly covered if they went into the weed a bit. So when the pots come up empty on the weed, but with say 3 a pot on the hard ground, i had a good idea what was happening. Researchers weren't interested in knowing this information because they were so set in what data they wanted to collect.
Another example is we'd often stop and watch the shark fishermen go about their business. One thing that has hung with me is when they said the public would be shocked at the size of some of the sharks caught. This was before the ban, so imagine what it is like now!
Continuing with the shark fishermen, it is important to note that they provided the most detailed shark information. Now they have stopped, there is a massive data gap which researchers can't fill. Bring back the shark fishermen, collect and analyse data, aim for a sustainable industry.
In my opinion, the issue stems from the universities. Many students get their first taste of the ocean, generally in the form of completing a dive course. They get bitten by the ocean bug and before you know it, they're budding marine biologists. From this position, they then enter into research, testing hypothesis dreamed up in the confines of the university. Some of the crap they come up with is quite laughable and anyone with experience would tell them straight up that it won't work. But still they persist and the results become inconclusive because they don't know whether it was environmental or of their own doing.
Anyhow, enough of my rant. Researchers - speak to industry.
hezzy
Posts: 1521
Date Joined: 27/11/09
clayd , mate many true and
clayd , mate many true and good points in that above
this below concerns me though to some degree
[Continuing with the shark fishermen, it is important to note that they provided the most detailed shark information. Now they have stopped, there is a massive data gap which researchers can't fill. Bring back the shark fishermen, collect and analyse data, aim for a sustainable industry.]
the shark guys do supply a lot on info , no doubt , but they have not stopped netting everywhere , just the metro , and while many of them are calling for the metro to be re opened to remove big whites /stop reduce attacks
the fact is that in all areas they still do operate in have also seen an increase in attacks sightings , so shark netting is not an answer in itself, all it will do is give shark netters access to small sharks and demersals in the metro ,
while all the public may think it will help , in reality their fishing presence has not reduced attacks incidents outside of the metro , so id ask them to demonstrate how their netting in metro waters will remove the threat of these big sharks ?
hezzy
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
resurgence
Posts: 575
Date Joined: 23/04/14
Research
chris raff
Posts: 3257
Date Joined: 09/02/10
How would a fisho go about
How would a fisho go about determining present numbers locally .. would it be too simplistic to strategically anchor large offal burley floating bombs every 5-10kms along the metro coast from Margarets to Jurien during peak season about now I guess , whats that about 50 - 100 of and then monitor numbers / tag GWs for a week or so before removing and do so annually . It’s not rocket science and you couldn’t pin point numbers but it would give us a starting point and a clue which is more than 4 yrs of tax payer funded research has given us . Who do I send my invoice to ?
“Intelligence is like a four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places.”