A spate of incidents in which whales have been snared in Australian shark nets have led activists to once again cry for their removal. In two separate incidents, pairs of whales were spotted off the coast of Queensland, wrapped in the controversial shark mitigation measures.<\/p>\n
The marine conservation activism organization Sea Shepherd Australia reported that on September 17, two whales (a mother-calf pair), were seen dragging a shark net in Hervey Bay, located north of Brisbane. \u201cThe whale was spotted yesterday and it has since been confirmed by the QLD shark control program that this shark net came from Rainbow Beach,\u201d wrote the organization on Facebook<\/a>, \u201cmeaning she has already dragged this extremely heavy and dangerous net for a considerable distance.\u201d<\/p>\n According to The Guardian<\/a>, Queensland\u2019s department of primary industries reported the pair were freed Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Later that same day, though, another pair became trapped in another shark net, this time off the coast of Noosa. \u201cNight has fallen, meaning the rescue team is unable to attend, and they will be left to struggle overnight,\u201d reported Sea Shepherd. \u201cWe hold grave concerns for the welfare of these whales, especially the calf who is heavily wrapped up in the shark net.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Thursday afternoon, Queensland fisheries officers and a marine animal response team were still working to rescue the creatures.<\/p>\n Shark nets remain a controversial feature of Australian beaches<\/a>. Many scientists, activists and members of the public have called for their removal, saying they not only pose a threat to wildlife, but are ineffective in preventing shark attacks<\/a>. While New South Wales had planned a trial reduction in its shark net program, that trial was suspended<\/a> after Mercury Psillakis was killed by a shark<\/a> at Sydney\u2019s northern beaches. Meanwhile, the Queensland government announced an $88-million ($57-million USD) investment in its Shark Control Program<\/a> in June, which includes shark nets, drumlines, drone surveillance and whale-deterrent programs at Queensland beaches.<\/p>\n \u201cThis heartbreaking incident highlights yet again why the QLD Government must remove shark nets,\u201d added Sea Shepherd on Facebook. \u201cThey do not protect swimmers, they trap and endanger our precious marine life. These incredible animals come to our warmer waters to birth their calves, something they should be able to do without the threat of ineffective shark nets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spate of incidents in which whales have been snared in Australian shark nets have led activists to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,2096,19603,66,82652,72051,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-158066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-facebook","11":"tag-queensland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sea-shepherd","14":"tag-shark-nets","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}