Chris Carter: Sharks have feelings too

Chris Carter

The catching of a huge juvenile female great white shark off the coast of Raglan last week raises a fascinating issue that New Zealand needs to address: protecting the great white shark in our waters.

For most people, a great white is the last thing they want to come across while swimming in the sea, but do we really want a situation where there are hardly any in our waters at all?

Depending on who you talk to, that may be a genuine possibility in the future.

Great whites were listed as "globally vulnerable" on the International Red List of Threatened Species in 2000, amid fears their accidental capture in some commercial and recreational fisheries is having a significant impact on numbers.

Like many other top predators, populations of great whites tend to be small and lack the elasticity to withstand external pressures, such as fishing and environmental change.

The sharks are long-lived, surviving between 23 and 36 years. Most importantly, they take 10 to 14 years to reach sexual maturity, and have a low rate of reproduction.

For these reasons, our near neighbour Australia has already moved to prohibit the catch of great whites, except in specified circumstances.

It has done so despite a long history of shark attacks on people in its waters.

New Zealand is party to the International Convention on Migratory Species, which obliges us to follow Australia's example. But to date we haven't done so.

As Conservation Minister, I'm becoming increasingly convinced it is time we took concrete steps to preserve the great white.

While New Zealand game fishers are generally responsible and often tag and release great whites if they accidentally catch them, the Department of Conservation has received a growing number of reports of overseas anglers travelling to our waters to target large white sharks for trophy jaws.

We have no real idea of the numbers of great whites around New Zealand.

It seems to me prudent to take precautionary steps until we do know just how many there are, and how fast they are declining.

Clearly, if we are to protect great whites we need to do so in such a way that preserves public safety in key at-risk swimming areas.

An example is the shark netting system around Dunedin's Brighton, St Clair and St Kilda beaches.

Having said that, it is also important to recognise that when it comes to celebrity predators, the perception of risk is often greater than the actual reality, largely thanks to movies like Jaws.

Consider this: Dunedin's shark netting system caught sharks at an average rate of 18 per year between 1986 and 1991, but it last caught a great white in the 1970s, some 30 years ago.

Just because a species is potentially dangerous is not a reason for it not to exist - if that were the case, why have various nations protected the tiger, the lion and the bear?

Great whites are no different. This ancient and rare predator deserves the chance to continue to inspire awe in our waters.

* Chris Carter is the Conservation Minister.