Odd that members of the public are prepared to sue
councils for personal injury on beaches, but the public support the efforts of
'whale-rescue' that has obvious potentially fatal consequences. The suggestion that the SA government may lift the law making it
an offence for people to involve themselves in such situations is bizarre in the
least (see article below). Clearly however, in this
situation, everyone felt that there was a moral and ethical duty to attempt
something quickly.
Maybe this demonstrates more than ever, the importance
of finding a way to prevent entanglements in the first place rather than
just relying on 'rescue' which is extremely dangerous. This was an issue
that was not dicussed in detail at the recent workshop and is particularly
pertinent to Victoria and SA where we have a large number of Right Whales (a
species known to be highly aggressive) and, at least in Victoria recently, a
lift on the limit of the number of craypots that can be distributed through
areas like the Otway Basin.
I would suggest that this is an issue that needs to be
tackled now, before Right Whale numbers swell to a level where these kinds of
incidents become commonplace.
A copy of an article regarding the recent incident is
below:
DAMIAN Grimm is a reluctant hero. The 29-year-old
Whyalla man was yesterday nursing a heavily bandaged hand, the legacy of saving
a drowning whale in northern Spencer Gulf on Monday. Mr Grimm, along with his diving partners Tony Bramley, 50, and
Richard Worthington, 29, launched a perilous rescue of the stricken 8m southern
right whale after it became entangled in crabbing pots in Fitzgerald Bay, near
Whyalla. Despite criticism from National Parks and Wildlife SA that the men were
not trained to help the whale, they were roundly praised for their efforts
yesterday. Opposition Leader Rob Kerin called for Mr Grimm's loss of earnings
and medical bills to be paid by the State Government. With his trademark
humility, Mr Grimm coyly smirked at the suggestion the trio were heroic. "It's
just something that we did because it had to be done," he said. "The whale would
have died if we hadn't have got in there and helped it. We didn't really have a
choice." Mr Grimm has had surgery to repair a tendon in his hand which he sliced
while trying to cut ropes that bound the whale. Yesterday he was waiting to
learn if he could still be a pallbearer at his grandfather's funeral in Whyalla
today. "I'm really hoping that I will be okay to do that," he said. "It means a
lot." The men took a day off work yesterday and reflected on the rescue. "(The
rescue) is going to stay in my mind for a while," Mr Worthington said. "Just
being that close to a whale was incredible." The diving companions deflected
criticism from authorities. On Monday, National Parks and Wildlife SA said that
ideally the rescue should have been handled by trained experts. Environment
Minister John Hill told Parliament that, technically, the three divers breached
the law by getting so close to the whale. But he said the Government did not
support prosecutions in this case and the law would be reviewed. The drama began
early on Monday afternoon when the manager of the aquaculture farm that
contracts Mr Bramley's business, Whyalla Commercial Diving, alerted the men to
the whale being in trouble. The RSPCA's Whyalla branch asked the divers to look
at the situation. They found the whale struggling to stay afloat in about 6m of
water near kingfish pens. In a 25-minute operation, they alternated at diving
under the whale to cut ropes around its huge mass. Yesterday the whale was
spotted in Spencer Gulf from the air and appeared to be swimming
strongly.
