❓ The WA government is responding to whale entanglements in fishing ropes by implementing education programs, training, providing equipment, and seeking federal action. They are collaborating with the fishing industry to prevent future incidents.
AnsweredQoN 367Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WHALES - ENTANGLEMENT IN FISHING ROPES
I note that in the past month five whales have been entangled in fishing ropes off the Western Australian coast. What is the state government doing to prevent such horrible incidents re-occurring? Mr M. McGOWAN
I note that in the past month five whales have been entangled in fishing ropes off the Western Australian coast. What is the state government doing to prevent such horrible incidents re-occurring? Mr M. McGOWAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Kimberley for the question. It is a serious issue. In the past few weeks five whales were entangled in lines off the Western Australian coast. Last week it was a 40-metre humpback whale - a pregnant female in fact - with a rope tangled 15 times around her peduncle. We sent out our Department of Conservation and Land Management disentanglement team, led very ably by Doug Coughran, an outstanding Western Australian, who cut the rope free and, in effect, saved the lives of the whale and its calf. I was very pleased to congratulate that team. As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr M. McGOWAN replied: I thank the member for Kimberley for the question. It is a serious issue. In the past few weeks five whales were entangled in lines off the Western Australian coast. Last week it was a 40-metre humpback whale - a pregnant female in fact - with a rope tangled 15 times around her peduncle. We sent out our Department of Conservation and Land Management disentanglement team, led very ably by Doug Coughran, an outstanding Western Australian, who cut the rope free and, in effect, saved the lives of the whale and its calf. I was very pleased to congratulate that team. As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
I thank the member for Kimberley for the question. It is a serious issue. In the past few weeks five whales were entangled in lines off the Western Australian coast. Last week it was a 40-metre humpback whale - a pregnant female in fact - with a rope tangled 15 times around her peduncle. We sent out our Department of Conservation and Land Management disentanglement team, led very ably by Doug Coughran, an outstanding Western Australian, who cut the rope free and, in effect, saved the lives of the whale and its calf. I was very pleased to congratulate that team. As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr M. McGOWAN replied: I thank the member for Kimberley for the question. It is a serious issue. In the past few weeks five whales were entangled in lines off the Western Australian coast. Last week it was a 40-metre humpback whale - a pregnant female in fact - with a rope tangled 15 times around her peduncle. We sent out our Department of Conservation and Land Management disentanglement team, led very ably by Doug Coughran, an outstanding Western Australian, who cut the rope free and, in effect, saved the lives of the whale and its calf. I was very pleased to congratulate that team. As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
I thank the member for Kimberley for the question. It is a serious issue. In the past few weeks five whales were entangled in lines off the Western Australian coast. Last week it was a 40-metre humpback whale - a pregnant female in fact - with a rope tangled 15 times around her peduncle. We sent out our Department of Conservation and Land Management disentanglement team, led very ably by Doug Coughran, an outstanding Western Australian, who cut the rope free and, in effect, saved the lives of the whale and its calf. I was very pleased to congratulate that team. As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
As a consequence of these entanglements, I organised a meeting with the fishing industry, which was held at lunchtime today. We decided to undertake a range of initiatives. In conjunction with CALM, we will undertake an education program, whereby teams will travel around the state meeting with people at the coalface of the fishing industry. This program will be led by Doug Coughran, who will meet with these people and explain the best ways of avoiding these incidents - there are ways of avoiding them - and explain what to do if they come across a whale in this position. CALM will be producing a DVD to educate - Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr T. Buswell : A “Sneakers” production. Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
Mr M. McGOWAN : Members of the opposition are unbelievable. We think this is reasonably serious but they think everything is a joke. We will also undertake more training of people involved in CALM to make sure that there are more people trained in this field so they can rescue the whales. We will put some effort into providing new equipment so that the people involved in rescuing whales have the best equipment available. We will make a plea to the federal government to take international action on this matter. We will be committing appropriate dollars to ensure that these things take place. We take the whole issue of whale disentanglement seriously. I would like to thank the industry for its cooperation. It is taking it seriously as well, and we expect that there will be some positive outcomes as a result of our efforts.
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