Support for Shark Breeding

July 12, 2005

Release from:
By Helen Manusu
Manning River Times

Fishers and divers from the northern rivers of NSW have enthusiastically welcomed news of a captive breeding program for the endangered grey nurse shark, to supplement wild populations.

The Northern Rivers Fisheries Conference originally proposed the initiative in 2003 in a submission to the Threatened Species Unit, conference chairman Ken Thurlow told the Times.

Mr Thurlow's comments came after Forster dive centre operator Ron Hunter expressed disappointment in the Times that the NSW government had chosen artificial breeding ahead of protection of grey nurse habitat.

Mr Hunter's 'diveforster' website contains many photographs of grey nurse sharks carrying scars or the actual hooks, traces and lines of fishermen.

He wants all recreational divers and the general public to bombard State leaders with submissions that the proposed artificial breeding program is useless without habitat protection for the wild grey nurse population.

Mr Thurlow claimed fishing hooks in sharks' mouths are not a significant problem. Sharks teeth are continually growing forward. They shed up to 50,000 teeth in a lifetime.

He pointed out that the Scientific Committee Report into the Recovery Plan for the grey nurse shark states: ‘The general banning of hook and line fishing is not warranted.'

"It is to be hoped that additional federal funding can also be secured for this ambitious program," Mr Thurlow said.

The grey nurse shark is listed as critically endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999. "There is a worldwide decline in grey nurse shark populations and NSW fishers can't be blamed for that!" he said.

"Little is known about the shark's life cycle and the cause of their demise could be viral, pathogenic, genetic, environmental or even higher levels of predation by mako, bull and tiger sharks."

Female grey nurse sharks have no placental connection with their young. They have two uteri and produce about 40 eggs which hatch in the uteri. The two older, stronger, shark pups devour their siblings during the gestation period. So, only two pups are born every two years, after having devoured their siblings.

The test-tube breeding program is probably the only viable solution to the problem, at this stage, Mr Thurlow believes.

"The totally negative response to this exciting initiative by the Greens and so- called Conservation groups, is entirely predictable," he said.

"Their ‘nanny' approach of locking up huge areas and locking people out forever, is akin to locking the children up in a bedroom for five years and expecting they will stay the same and nothing will have changed. It's ridiculous! "Logically, under their proposal, the entire NSW coastline would need to be locked up.

"Grey nurse sharks are highly migratory and only visit the northern rivers during the winter months.

"They feed and aggregate all along the coast from Victoria to the Queensland border.

"Fishers and divers of the northern rivers have indicated to the CSIRO and the Threatened Species Unit they will again assist and support this program in any way they can."