DAF Shark Control Program - Recommended Council Policy Position

Amelia Lorentson166:44

Okay, I'd like to move the recommendation in front of us that but that Council pay a note the report by environmental services to the General Committee dated 17th of June regarding a recommended Council policy position on the DAF Shark Control Program and be adopted the following policy position that one continues to support the DAF Shark Control Program SCP under the Queensland shark management plan with the vision of the Shark Control Program transitioning to lower bycatch potential alternatives in waters adjacent to the Noosa. Lga and to Council to work alongside DAF to explore further opportunities to actively support SharkSmart educational programs and alternative bite mitigation trials is where appropriate this section C to Council? B. I can't see C. Note Council's other shark management responsibilities including: marine animal stranding response. Noting this role requires resourcing for materials and staff training and the use of contractors to enable Council to effectively respond to stranding events and to consideration of signage investigation relating to dangerous marine animal warnings across Council managed canal systems only. Noosa Waters. Do you like to say any more? Yep, I'll speak to the motion in front of us. Firstly, I'm looking forward to the recommendations of the shark control that program from the State will be open for community consultation later this year. Taking a position now allows us to respond effectively to these recommendations and allow our community a you channel to express their. Much. Values and expectations. I want to thank Council staff and the Councillors around the table for the courage to take a position to encourage thoughtful discussions and push the State government for innovative solutions and strategies that protect both human life and marine life. Solutions that reflect our commitment to safety and environmental stewardship. Our community may never agree on removing the nets entirely but there is a growing agreement on finding better non-lethal alternatives. This represents the middle path, the way forward. We need to push the State government to invest in research, innovation, and evidence-based approaches to shark control. State need-led we need trials to actively engage initiatives so we state-led- trials and initiatives so we can discover solutions that protect both humans and marine life. And we need to change the focus of this debate. Nets work exactly as they're designed to. They're fishing gear. And they catch and kill marine life. But they do so indiscriminately. It's time that we start to change the focus of our debate and start asking more profound questions. Do we have the ethical right to use such control methods? Does this outdated approach align with our environmental values or our technological capabilities? What do we owe other creatures and what do we owe the biosphere? This debate concerns more than just safety, it's also about stewardship and it's also about responsibility. Such control we need to commit to a path and lead by example, showing that we can both protect people and the environment with intelligence and compassion. Don't you leave you with a quote that I've found in lots and of reading that I do in this area. Human ingenuity can find a middle path where both public safety and ecological integrity are maintained, that should be our aim. Marine species deserve their chance at life to fulfil their ecological function, just as we deserve our safety. And I think Councillors that strong should aims as participants in our marine community and also as a biosphere.

David, do you want to give the overview? Yeah, for sure. I'll give a quick overview of the reports. Obviously, there was a Council workshop that was held a couple of weeks ago now, so you do to the Shark Control Program and Council's involvement to date and where we see us moving forward with the program as Council. But basically, the objectives of this report is to allow Council to develop a policy develop a policy position on the DAF Shark Control Program. It's also important for Council to consider how much we want to be involved in the program, so there's a huge opportunity for Council to support that in terms of SharkSmart programs. We've done a little bit of that work already with the department, and I also see Council as a key opportunity here to represent the community's views on the DAF Shark Control Program as well. It should be noted that the DAF Shark Control Program and the associated Queensland shark management plan has the objectives of moving towards technological advances in the shark program to reduce potential bycatch concerns that community members have with the program the other thing to note too is the Council does actually hold some responsibilities in shark risk management outside of the DAP Shark Control Program as well and I'll touch on that a little later in the talk just to give a little bit of a context of the overall situation here we're approaching the whale migration season and over the last few years it's quite common knowledge that can spark some community concerns regarding the risks of whale entanglement and other species entanglement in the of context, we have around 30,000 humpback whales that migrate past Noosa each year across the Queensland Shark Control Program which runs from the Tweed all the way up to north Queensland so there's some, I'm not 100% sure, but basically from Bundaberg south to the Tweed where we get the whales passing through there's average less than six entanglements per year however we do often observe them off the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast borders and that has a lot to do with the track of the whales in relation to the continental shelf in Noosa Shire and Cooran. Today Council has not held a policy position on the DAF Shark Control Program but as I mentioned earlier environmental services has actively supported that under their Queensland shark management plan in paving the way I guess for alternative solutions for you know to lower that bycatch potential of the program. Most notably, last year environmental services and Noosa Biosphere supported a DAF SharkSmart program which was all about educating ocean users in particular surfers and tourism operators how to be a little bit more SharkSmart and responsible around our waterways and ocean beaches and that obviously paves the way to you know I guess harness education as a shark control measure. So following on from this information here obviously notice of motion was passed by Council on the 16th of May and that was to achieve the following outcomes a Council to adopt a polyquisition position on the Shark Control Program including the identification of all roles and responsibilities of Council under the Shark Control Program. Council to increase advocacy and support to the State Shark Control Program and that's obviously the objectives of moving towards yeah technical technological advances and sharp shutting the smarter shark, control technologies I guess. It was also noted that Council should look to increase the support to the State in the continuous evaluation of the technical technological advancements in the Shark Control Program to, again further reduce that bycatch potential. Now that could be an expansion of drone trials or as I said SharkSmart community awareness programs. At the workshop that was held with Councillors and the executive team a couple of weeks ago we had coordinator and the program coordinators from the Shark Control Program come in and give a presentation on the actual shark control methods how they what the set up of the equipment is of Noosa and how they're moving towards outcomes under the shark management plan is up for review in this year and following to next year we'll look at some of the outcomes that will come from that piece of work they also noted that the lead agency in terms of taking care of all these trials and looking to what the future likes that like is actually the Shark Control Program scientific advisory working group so that's a panel that sits alongside DAF and recommends these changes to the program as they review the results of the trials that have been undertaken for the past five years it should nice. Be noted that obviously Department of Agriculture and Fisheries staff are the lead agency in the Shark Control Program so Council does sit only in the positions of you know supporting areas of the program such as SharkSmart awareness programs and assisting DAF to you know carry out some of these trials on equipment and alternative gear to include in the Shark Control Program but we also do play obviously a really important part in representing the community's the Shark Control Program to DAF. It's not something that we've done in the past because we haven't had the policy position on the program and that's why we're here today I guess. As I noted earlier there are other shark risk areas that Council is responsible for outside of the DAF Shark Control Program. One is I guess our timely and effective response to whale stranding events so it's well documented that you know whale carcass strandings or live strandings even on our beaches are almost always associated with large predatory sharks. Council does need to have the ability to respond to those events timely and efficiently to reduce that impact to swimmers potentially. The second area is of dangerous marine animal advisory signage bull sharks in brackets in our Council managed canal systems. So following on from other councils moves over the last sort of five to ten years since there was some fatal attacks in canals Coast, which I'm sure everyone is aware of, there is the opportunity for councils to consider doing an advisory signage investigation across our Council managed canal systems. So to the recommendations of the report. I'll read them out to detail. That Council, A, note the report by environmental services to the General Committee Meeting dated 17th of June regarding a recommended Council policy position. The DAF Shark Control Program. B, adopt the following policy position as: one, Council continues to support the DAF Shark Control Program under the Queensland shark management plan with the vision of the Shark Control Program transitioning to lower bycatch potential alternatives in waters adjacent to the Noosa LGA. 2. Council to continue to work alongside DAF to explore further opportunities to actively support SharkSmart educational programs and alternate bite mitigation. Trials where appropriate. And then Council should note the other shark management responsibilities that I just explained which include: 1. Marine animal stranding response. Noting the trial requires resourcing for equipment, materials and staff training and the use of contractors to enable Council to effectively respond to stranding events. 2. Consideration of a signage investigation relating to dangerous marine animal warnings across Council managed councils, canal systems only, Noosa Waters effectively. I'll probably leave it there, given the workshop was there and the report is in front of everyone, but more than happy to field any questions.

So, no. that's not, it's what the officer's recommendation is that Council's position is to continue to support DAF in the shark control management program and to take part in the review of the shark management plan, which will happen next year, DAF have advised us that they are continuing the current trials, they'll be evaluating their current trials, and once they've done evaluation of their current trials, they're going to review the. Management plan. We'll have an opportunity for input to that process at that time, but it's a DAF-run process, it's not a Council-run process, so it's not something we go out to community consultation on. I'm not sure. Whether DEPH do community consultation on.