Glasslove said...

Not sure if I am pointing out the obvious or not, but can someone explain why other large predatory type creatures, such as a tiger shark are not protected and no one seems to bat an eyelid if one is caught and strung up as a trophy. Take the guy that was in the newspaper who caught one off a jetty in cockburn recently.

If this is the case why do certain people get so worked up about protecting white sharks? Surely a tiger shark is an Apex pretator as well?

I'm no expert on this but I understand that Australia uses the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifications to determine the status of speicies. From Wikipedia:

"The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every five years if possible, or at least every ten years. This is done in a peer reviewed manner through IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Specialist Groups, which are Red List Authorities responsible for a species, group of species or specific geographic area.

Species are classified in nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

Extinct (EX) – No known individuals remaining.
Extinct in the Wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range.
Critically Endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild.
Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild.
Near Threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future.
Least Concern (LC) – Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.
Data Deficient (DD) – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction.
Not Evaluated (NE) – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.[15]

When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable."

As I understand it the protected status of a species in Australia is determined from it's IUCN category

As a curious point and no other this season just gone i saw a lot of Tiger sharks around the 4 foot mark around the marina of Mindarie. Mostly being skull dragged up rocks by fisherman's and clubbed to death. But definitely an increase from what I've noticed other years.

Also a mate photographed a GW in the harbour chasing Mullet.