5 March 2014 - The Federal
Government will require the West Australian
Government to undertake a full environmental
assessment of Western Australia's Shark
Mitigation Strategy.
In response to a request
from the West Australian Government to extend
the current operation, I have reiterated
that the scheme requires a full assessment
under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999.
The current operations
can continue until April 30.
However, as I have previously
informed the West Australian Government
on making the original decision, there would
be no further extension without a full assessment.
Western Australia will
need to refer the program for assessment
under national environment law. We will
work co-operatively with the West Australian
Government through this process.
I recognise the importance
of human safety, as was the case for the
original exemption to allow limited actions
to protect swimmers following the recent
increase in shark attacks, in two small
areas of an over 12,500 kilometre coastline.
Importantly, the issue
has highlighted the need for further research
into the shark population off the Australian
coast.
To support this, the
Federal Government is committing $379,000
for research into the white shark population.
It will aim to locate juvenile and nursery
aggregation areas to enable genetic and
electronic tagging to build a greater profile
of the population and trends.
+ More
Monitoring of Southern
Ocean continues
5 March 2014 - On 2
March 2014 the Australian Customs and Border
Protection Service (ACBPS) undertook another
monitoring flight over the Southern Ocean.
The flight left Hobart
on Sunday morning and landed in Melbourne
that evening.
The flight observed
vessels from both the Japanese whaling fleet
and the Sea Shepherd protest fleet.
No whaling activities,
nor any evidence of recent activity, were
observed during this monitoring mission.
Once again, the A319
aircraft has successfully monitored the
activities of whaling and protest vessels
over a large area in the Southern Ocean.
The Government is undertaking
the first such monitoring operation in six
years, and only the second ever. It is important
for Australia to have a monitoring presence
in the Southern Ocean.
I want to stress that
all parties must abide by international
maritime law.
The Government has publicly
called on masters of all vessels involved
to uphold their responsibility to ensure
safety at sea and abide by international
maritime law.
While we respect the
right to peaceful protest, Australia will
not condone any dangerous, reckless or unlawful
behaviour.
The Southern Ocean can
be a treacherous, remote and unforgiving
environment, where search and rescue capability
is extremely limited.
