Catch-and-kill plan runs against tides of opinion
A heart-stopping encounter between a shark and a stand-up paddleboarder near Wellfleet has a Barnstable County commissioner doubling down on a proposal to catch and kill the predatory fish that conservationists are blasting as “ill-considered” and “indiscriminate.”
Commissioner Ron Beaty’s said yesterday’s near-miss off Marconi Beach and a recent seal attack in Orleans highlight the need to deploy baited drum lines with hooks near popular beaches during the summer months. Under Beaty’s proposal, which he says mirrors a strategy used at beaches in Western Australia, large sharks found hooked but still alive would be shot and their bodies would be discarded at sea.
“I think it underscores that there’s a real problem and it’s growing and it’s just a matter of time before someone is killed or maimed,” Beaty said of the run-in between a 69-year-old Chatham man and a shark that clamped down on his paddleboard.
“People need to stop criticizing the proposal and at least put other ideas out there and start a public dialogue on this matter because sooner or later something is going to happen, and unfortunately it’s going to be someone getting killed if we don’t start addressing the problem,” Beaty said.
The increasing number of tourists visiting Cape beaches and growing popularity of stand-up paddleboarding, he said, is a deadly combination.
“That’s probably why that surfer was attacked,” he said. “The summer season may be coming to a close but we need to start doing a better job of addressing this now because next year it will probably be an even bigger problem.”
Beaty, who serves on the federal Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission and thinks organizing community forums would help better educate the public about the dangers posed by sharks, said he plans on bringing the idea up at the panel’s next meeting Sept. 18.
But in a statement yesterday, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a local nonprofit that tags and tracks white sharks off the Cape, slammed Beaty’s proposal.
“The proposal by Commissioner Beaty to kill white sharks to improve safety has been trialed in Western Australia without success,” the organization’s statement read. “The program was terminated following review by the Australian Environmental Protection Authority. According to the Western Australia Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly, there was no evidence that the cull made beaches safer.”
The group went on to say “the presence of white sharks off our coast is an indication of a healthy eco-system.”
“The inshore water off many Cape Cod and South Shore beaches are preferred feeding grounds for white sharks. They come to these areas to feed on a natural prey item — seals. Shark advisory signs, flags, videos and brochures produced by the Regional Shark Working Group provide Cape Cod beach users with information to improve public safety ... the proposal made by Commissioner Beaty is ill-considered, indiscriminate, and will not influence beach safety.”
But Beaty fired back, calling on the conservancy to come up with new safety measures.
“Let them put forth other proposals,” he said. “We’re clearly not doing enough at this point.”