Greenie ideals will risk lives

GREENIES are playing Russian roulette with people’s lives by objecting to the NSW Government’s push to put nets in shark-infested waters.

Militant conservation group Sea Shepherd told the Gold Coast Bulletin yesterday it would protest the installation of “insane” shark killers along the state’s north coast, and even admitted the nets could be sabotaged if they ever made it into the water.

Another greenie group told surfers to find other breaks because those in Ballina and surrounding areas were too dangerous.

For too long Green-leaning local governments in NSW have resisted pressure to introduce shark nets and drum lines. Logic finally hit them on the head this week and minority groups want to overthrow it.

“If local people day after day are watching dolphins killed they’ll go ‘this is bull, this is insane, we need to do something about it’,” Sea Shepherd Australia managing director Jeff Hansen said.

“Installing nets is insane, it just doesn’t add up.”

Mr Hansen and his crew have obviously forgotten the loss of two lives and numerous attacks in recent years, not to mention the hardship felt by the business sector.

As Queensland figures over a long period of time clearly show, nets and drum lines play a vital role in protecting swimmers and surfers.

There’s a reason there’s never been a fatal attack on a Queensland beach with shark control equipment in use. It works. As previously reported by the Bulletin, about 20,000 whales pass through Queensland waters each year and of the 50-odd whales tangled in shark nets in the past 50 years, 48 were released alive.

The Gold Coast City Council and Gold Coast Tourism have quite rightly endorsed the continued use of nets and drum lines along our coastline as part of a raft of measures that have so far proved to be highly effective.

Like those towns in northern NSW, tourism is a pillar of the Gold Coast economy, making human safety paramount.

While it is hoped emerging technology, including sonar warning systems, will eventually replace the need for nets, until any such initiatives can be proven to be fully effective, the nets must stay.

Northern NSW has considered or trialled eco-barriers, drones that drop electronic bombs, a trendy shark app, a catch-and-release shark program and thousands of dollars have been wasted on piecemeal aerial patrols, yet their shark farce just gets worse.

Premier Mike Baird finally saw the light this week after years of indecision. Now a few left-wing green groups want to rip it apart.

Australia has seen the devastation firsthand when the safety of humans in those waters is ignored. The cost is too great.

The taste of what will happen if the push for shark nets hits another snag will leave people green around the gills.