As you know, over the past couple of years encounters between people and sharks have received a huge amount of attention, particularly in Western Australia. No doubt you’re also well aware that the WA government has recently changed policy concerning the management of sharks, such that Department of Fisheries can ‘track, catch and, if necessary, destroy sharks identified in close proximity to beachgoers’ (Gov. of WA, 27th September 2012).

We are two researchers working at the University of Wollongong and University of New England interested in learning more about the views of ocean-users on this issue. We want to better understand the WA government response to recent events, and the implications of the change in policy. As part of our project, we have made an online questionnaire to try to gauge the views of ocean-users towards sharks. In particular, we want to learn about the thoughts of ocean-users towards shark management in WA.

We think this project and survey might be of interest to WAUC members. So we’re writing to ask if you would be willing to circulate (via an email list, word of mouth etc.) and/or promote our survey on your website or Facebook page if you have one?

Our aim is to promote the survey as widely as we can, as soon as we can. You can access the survey here: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ocean-usersandsharksinWA

As a long time ocean-user I am aware that a great deal of effort is currently being directed towards better mitigating the risk of human/shark encounters in WA. But we think that as yet the knowledge, views and opinions of ocean-users themselves have not been widely consulted. The goal of our research is to address the lack of ocean-user engagement with the hope of informing public policy.

Please see the attached Participant Information Sheet if you would like further information on the project. If you have any questions at all about the survey or our research, please feel free to contact us.



Thanks very much in advance. We hope to hear from you soon.



Kind regards



Andrew Warren and Leah Gibbs
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Dr. Andrew Warren │ Lecturer in Geography & Planning │ School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences │ University of New England │ Ph: +61 2 6773 2426 │ Mob: 0422312680 │ Web:http://www.une.edu.au/staff/awarren7.php │