the drumlines are the worst thing to hit the wa coast. i don't like the idea that i might get attacked by a shark any more than any one else but that is the risk we take when we enter the ocean. the sharks have been in the oceans for millions of years and have more  right to be in the ocean than we do. one site said that shark numbers are incredibly healthy, what a load of bs, no where near enough science has been done to support this barbaric human behavior.

there are 3,500 great white estimated in the world making them more endangered than tigers. facts 1700 people die on australian roads each year and 54 people die from lightning strikes world wide each year where as there are 50-70 attacks and 5-15 fatalities world wide from sharks. 20 - 100 million sharks are slaughtered each year and for a top predator that is no a sustainable number no matter how you look at it. the oceans need sharks to remain healthy with out them fish dieases would wipe out huge populations of fish and what is humane about a shark struggling on a line and then not killed instantly and instead has to be shot 4 times.

imagine the pain that animal endures and don't say they can't feel pain because they can. and once they are slaughtered they are dumped, left to feed even larger sharks. we all don't like shark fin soup but this is no better than that. and once they have eaten their fill on the bodies , do you think they will still eat a small bit of bait? the world is watching on in disgust at the state that it could allow this. there are far better ways to solve this problem like satellite tagging the sharks. the state government has no idea what it is doing

thats just my view   

 meh....just another shark thread

i see your point of the petition, but its just going to turn in what the other threads are.

I reckon it'll get a bump in numbers today Scotto .. up against the mighty activists social media machine , so hopefully people will pass it on .

@ Fishwrangler only a young bloke and I hear your passion and your welcome to your view .. do a search on sharks on this site there's 100's of posts you may even become more informed .

PS : Mr Scotto has a low tolerance of idiots talking crap

 now now lets keep it civilized:) always willing to learn. didnt mean to rub any one up the wrong way. but i feel strongly about these things that's my point out there so i'm done with this thread. no hard feelings 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2005/06/0613_050613_sharkfacts.html 

let's just agree to disagree if you support it then that's fine that's your decision but i don't and that's my decision i'm not trying to change your pinion and if that makes me a tree hugging f@&@"t  then so be it. but this argument has gone on long enough. there's no point to it and i'm done   

 hey, I'm pretty sure that you still need to catch a Shark to put a sat tag on it, heaven forbid that the shark feels some pain, would love for you to stand in front of the family's that have lost loved ones to attacks and state you are concerned that a shark feels pain.

The governments options in the short term are either netting or drum lining with drum lining being a proven method that has less environmental impact. It would take years to sat tag the current numbers of sharks off the metro coast. Over the last three outing I have personally seen two very large tigers and my mate has caught a small hammerhead, there is clearly an issue with shark numbers.

I would also argue that the size of the hooks being used for drum lining would be unlikely to hook smaller sharks.

 Keep it civil or it gets deleted. Zero tolerance

 Yet again you resort to name calling and derogatory comments

Scotto you and your mates are champs

 Well I just searched my complete history & there's nothing in there like you described. Mistaken or making shit up. 

 Mate checked aswell and need to apologise my mistake. I owe you a beer, or maybe a carton ;)

 Thank you Clogwog. Owning up to an honest mistake is a rare thing on this site. Good man. You don't owe me anything. You checked your info & apologised, all I can ask for & more than many on here would do.

Fishhugger the drum lines are the best thing the government could do. 

 Petition signed and shared !!!

 I can see how much you care for the fish you catch,that fish you are holding so proudly may well of sufferd from blindness caused by the sun,if you really care,cover the fish eyes they dont were sunglasses & do not have eye lids.Diver

 Signed and shared, with a bit of negative feedback.

spewin and I was just about to put a bag of popcorn on the stove!! hehe!
for me living in a small town where I have watched little gormms grow up surfing and fishing playing in the ocean here. We don't need permission to take care of any predator that comes close to people here in the ocean, they are given ample opportunity to swim away but if they don't well it is taken care of without any fuss and no arguments from anyone regardless of their opinion or position on to kill or not to kill.
then on the other hand! people should stop putting big baits out off the beach and targeting sharks because that is also contributing to these creatures coming in close. good onya for the petition scotto. I think if the otherside can have their say and put pressure on everyone then why not pro drumline petition, everyone has the right to have their say on things.
young fella being passionate will put you in good sted for the future but don't stir it up on a thread that was meant for pro drumline comments.
now back to the popcorn and river monsters!!

Instead of cull, should be 'coastal protection strategy,' wouldnt have even made the media..

awesome tv sea-kem, my little girl loves the show and I get to teach her what kind of fish they are! seen a Cpl of river monsters at the local pub here that would take out a guy! you wouldn't want to catch em cos they would snap your rod!!

 Signed and shared on Facey....

 I want to know, besides sitting back and do more research, what is the anti shark cull groups suggesting? At least the government is making a stand on the situation and acting on it. Are they going take responsibility for the next person killed? Yes they always use the road death stats, but there are actions in place to deter drink drivers etc...to reduce the death rate. IMO if they reckon that people going into the ocean is asking for trouble, why not let people speed and drink drive and if we choose to use the same roads as them we are also asking for it. 

I agree that killing a few sharks may not stop all the shark related deaths, but it gives a people confidence to enter the ocean with less possibility of getting attacked be a shark close to shore.

on the same note, with all the penalties for drink driving and speeding etc... It also doesnt stop everyone from doing it, but it gives me confidence that they are less chance of me getting killed by someone breaking the law. 

Thats my view.

I dont really care either way, but anything the Greens support must be wrong. 

Will sign it now :)

I love sharks........ in beer batter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no point in killing them and dropping back in the ocean dead.

Why not fillet them up and give them to the salvo's for food for the homeless?? sure the homeless would appreciate it. plus its more revenge for eating us!!!!!!

There must be to many sharks around the drum lines have been in since saturday and they have only caught 1

40 hooks out each day for 6 days == 144 hours of fishing time  where are the masses of sharks in the south west.

Fact ;  local surfers at some breaks are telling people that they have seen sharks when they have not because the breaks are becoming to crowded and they want people to stay away

Fact ; 30 surfers on the water at injidup 10ft shark swims through the back of the break, swell was clean and pumping, they knew the shark was there and no one went in to get away cause the swell was good,  where is the FEAR?

Poor old Ron must be turning in his grave...

http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/347588/Ron-Taylor-Marine-conservationist-Born-March-8-1934-Died-September-29-2012-Aged-78

And no, I'm not a f*&^%$g tree hugger who thinks all fish are 'sea kittens'.

I've been swimming, surfing, diving and fishing this coast for over 40 years. I still do and so do my kids.

But I live with the risk.

But I don't go spearfishing along the reefs behind Garden Island with a catch bag of wiggling, bleeding fish dragging behind me anymore. Nor do I go out surfing at the South Passage at Lancelin. Not because I think there's more sharks - I just think when we were young we were fn crazy.

My attitude towards the value of something's life has changed somewhat however.

Having kids and giving life contributed largely towards that change.

I feel fortunate that my old man brought me up with a 'conservative' attitude towards fishing as a result of the decline in fish stocks he had seen in his lifetime - and as an ex copper from the old school - he was one of the toughest f((*&^S I ever knew.

When that guy got taken in Warnbro Sound, that pretty much happened in my front yard where I swim every day and it had a profound effect on me. I was there on the scene about five minutes after the incident and witnessed first hand a family in utter distress. And the way that guy's son handled himself with the media afterwards would have made his father proud. That guy was a true 'man of the sea' and always said that if he went when he was in the ocean, then so be it - that's what he loved to do.

Flame away cullers - I'm over being angry - I feel sorry for you that you don't appreciate how awesome these animals are.

And if seeing one dragged up the side of a boat and shot in the head gets you off, well...

Maybe your attitude will change one day as well.

Do you guy's really think that the 7 billion of us are doing a geat job looking after the place where we live?

West Coast, I've always been scared sh*tless of them. But yeah, I'm more so now. A school of blowies swam under me the other day off Secret Harbour and I just about friggin walked on water for a second there.

I still surf and dive and fish - with my kids - just not in those places that I consider were high risk back in the day anyway.

I purposely never watched Jaws for that reason.

I just don't expect that we should go and start killing them so some fat, MacDonalds eating, overseas tourist can come and twinkle his toes at Cottelsoe beach and feel 'safe'. And as for the tourism business down South - the sharks are a great excuse. Maybe your charging too much or it's because your service is crap. For what it costs for two nights in Margaret River I can just about go to Bali for a week.

And how do the tourist operators think we are being portayed overseas?

Personally I think we as fisherman have had an effect on them coming closer to shore.

Animals are obviously capable of 'learned' behaviour.

For how many years have we been dropping thousands of cray pots off our coast, old bait goes over the side, fresh bait goes down again.

Hmmm, nice little burley slick X 1000's.

I'm sure many of you saw that footage posted a couple of weeks ago of the sharks hanging around that crayboat as the guy was throwing the under size crays back.

They're not there for the crays. And it doesn't prove, "wow, look how many more sharks there are now".

Smart charter boat operators now mimic the driving actions of crayboats when they come over a lump - why? Because the demersal fish have 'learned' that there's a free feed on the way.

Anyone that has fished Cockburn Sound will know of the dolphin that comes up to your boat for a free feed - 'learned' behaviour.

The stingrays that hang around popular boat ramps and jetties for a feed - 'learned' behaviour.

Did anyone see that episode of River Monsters where they tagged that Bull shark in Africa and tracked it movements? Quite clearly that shark had 'learned' that hanging around under a boat meant the possiblity of a free feed.

The Samson fish aggregation off Hillaries each year - guys can hardly get a fish to boat now. It wasn't like that 10 - 15 years ago. but bang, along comes the internet and everybodies out there chummin' up. Wow, why are there so many sharks here now?

Cockburn Sound - at the end of the Snapper season you might have a hundred boats hanging around the D9. Just like me, all chucking chopped up mulies over the side , chumming up.

I saw a show on the ABC last year when these young blokes were going to swim with the GWS. Althought they didn't bring them in the skipper of the boat was banging the deck with pole - the sharks had 'learned' to respond to that noise.

So now we want to drop 72 freshly rebaited burley cages 1 kilometre off the shore every day. Yep, that'll keep the sharks away.

And please, I'll ask again - how many sharks do you guys need to see killed and for how long before you feel safe again? And how is that going to stop Mr GWS swimming in from Africa the next day and eating you?

This is of course only my opinion, but it's just as crazy as some of the other bulls**t I see around the place.

And NO, this is NOT an attack on Pro fisherman or their right to earn a living doing what they love or fisherman (or persons for you PC's) in general, cause I'm one of them.

Uncle, that's my point - he changed...

 Anyway to start a poll on here to see how are for and against?

Would be interesting to see what the numbers are.

Grown up with drum lines and nets ! surfed, dived and fished all up and down the coast.

Can not for the life of me, remember any shark attacks.

Wonder why that is ?

I dont know where the 3,500 GWS world wide figure comes from, but there would be at least 3500 on the Aussie coast alone. Who comes up with this shit. Vic, SA and WA are riddled with them however mainly juviniles.

Not that I thing drumlining is the answer, more of a ne jerk reaction by the gov and silly to compare with Queensland drumlining efforts as the shark demographic is much different here. But christ 3500 GWS world wide is absolute bullshit, perhaps  <1997!!

 Hey boys instead of hacking on each other how about someone tell me how to catch a decent fish off mandurah/rockingham????

Where I grew up and learnt to surf was around Stockton Beach, really long sandy beaches with head lands at each end.

I learnt to fish and dive around Nelson Bay, not far from Stockton, and this area is kind of similar to WA, with lots of reef area.

I had never even heard of a White Pointer when I was a kid - 70's !!

Yet I see on Youtube guys catching Great White's at Stockton beach - so I suppose they were always there, just never saw or heard of one .

I didn't start this thread to start another pro vs anti argument, but more so for those pro, to simply provide written support directed to the authorities. interesting to see after months of arguments, it still evokes much debate.

the way I see it, is its a necessary evil much the same as taxes. no one wants to pay them, but its for the better of the state. same with the sharks, no one really wants them thinned out, but something does have to be done, again, for the better of the state.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/two-sharks-caught-just-hours-after-baited-drumlines-are-set-off-metropolitan-perth/story-fnhocxo3-1226814775021

Only been in the water 2 hours.

Now that is quick learning.

I wasn't going to get too involved, however I am now motivated to sign in favour of the cull.

 Anyone remeber tasmanian tigers? they used to bite the odd person or sheep. how'd they go!

I heard the bees and lightning got them all....

Just seen a client that is (was) going to the Protest. Anti cull.

I asked nicely why?

"Because the hooks will kill innocent animals like dolphins and especially my favourite - Humpback whales!!!!"

Oh I said, where did you hear that the drumlines have or ever will hook a whale.

From a Green website, looking after Humpbacks.

Now I was almost laughing, but resisted and opened up a page on the net showing the "natural predators of humpback's" - up pops Mr GWS.

"The only sharks that can prey on sick and juvie humpbacks are large tigers and Great whites, so removing them might actually help the humpback"

She is no longer going.

A classic case of misrepresentation by the Green webpage.

Also just signed.

Interesting to note that many off the Pro culling people are from Coastal suburbs or towns!