Persuasive Speech On Shark Culling

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English Persuasive Essay In light of the recent shark culling issue, it has come to many Australian citizen’s attention that something must be done about this situation. It is a situation of ‘kill or be killed’ and the question must be asked as to which is more important: A human’s life or a shark’s life? Sharks already suffer enough from being slaughtered to be put in Shark Fin Soup or for medical research and should not be culled, as they are such an important part of the natural world we live in. Why else would they have survived for longer than the dinosaurs? It is imperative that we look after these majestic creatures and ensure they remain protected. Compared to what most have been told about sharks, they are not as large a threat…show more content…
Dr Carl Meyer from Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology stated that mass levels of shark culling “runs the risk of ecosystem-level cascade effects where a general lack of sharks results in boom or bust in populations of species further down the food chain”. Furthermore when nets are used to trap sharks, often animals such as dolphins, turtles, whales and dugongs become trapped in them. Turtles are one of the most endangered species as a whole and are just innocent bystanders in this war between humans and sharks. We need to be careful of not affecting other animals in this quest to reduce shark numbers in the name of nothing. Sharks can already be caught legally by commercial and recreational fishers so any cull would be largely…show more content…
Dr Euan Ritchie stated “When sharks were culled in Hawaii there was no long-term benefit because sharks attacks occurred immediately after”. Why then, waste billions of taxpayers’ money on a solution that has previously shown it does not work? In South Africa, again, according to statistics from the KwaZulu-Natal Shark Board, “less than 18 per cent of marine life caught on drum lines in South Africa in the 2011 to 2012 financial year have been great white or tiger sharks” with animals mentioned in the above paragraph contributing to the other 78%. A large scale cull would be highly redundant then as Australia would be no different from Hawaii and South Africa. In New South Wales and Queensland “there have been severe shark attacks on beaches that are protected by nets”, highlighting how wrongly this issue is being

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