WASC held a board meeting yesterday, among many discussion points,plans and tactics discussed was a discussion over whether the shark cull would actually eventuate this year. We have been quietly confident and hope full that the drumlines would not go in again this season and WASC Vice President Gerry Waneck has been in belief of this for quite some time.You where right Gerry! We have all learned through opposing the cull and working on the shark issue in Perth over a number of years, not to get too excited and claim victory too soon. Unfortunately with this government there is always a catch. It was early in this meeting that I recieved many phone calls from Perth TV media but unfortunetely I have been unwell over the last few days and I decided that the best course of action for now would be to sit back and see what comes out in the wash. To let the media go to others in the movement for interview, and for wasc to sit back for 24 hrs and see what the catch/cop out is. Today WASC board members VP Gerry Waneck, Treasurer Travis Marc zee ( AKA Pirateshark) Secretary Tamara Hopkins and myself conducted an interview for Aleisha Banner of ten news. Unfortunately seven were tied up and not able to get a crew to the interview as they had planned and instead ran a good story using old footage. IN this interview i made a point of thanking the many groups which we have called upon to join us in this fight over the last few years. To name some ( and I hate doing this because i dont want anyone to feel as if they are forgotten or not mentioned but there are just so many to thank) I would like to thank Erik Brush and Shark for Life. Thank you Erik for being my big Brother, my mentor, my inspiration and a dear friend. From the very beginning you have always been there. When I said I am not sure when I said can I do this ? you where always there. Encouraging and empowering me. You where right my friend, I AM A SIAFU and our army will march upon this government. And we did!. I would like to thank the shark alliance members for hearing our call to come together and fight this thing. We may have had our differences and I had been warned these things would occur, But if you had not heard our repeated calls to unite and fight I do not believe we would have had the effect we have. So thank you to Lynn Maclaren and the greens, to Sea Shepherd for finally coming to the table after my years of harassment to do something for WA sharks. You are blessed with some wonderful volunteers and crew who gave me and WASC so much emotional support and advice in the early days of the imminent threat policy and when I began building this organisation. Though your initial lack of action frustrated me immensely it was this inaction which motivated me to start WASC and when we needed you to weigh in when the culling began you where there. I only wish that you had have helped us end the culling before it had began but you where very busy saving those beautiful giants of the deep. The whales. And that is that you do best. I love what you do. Thank you to SImon Péterfy Bori & Love Bandfy, Amy Flee and all the crew and people from forest rescue, FERN and the Lorax. Those vegies you used to give me kept me alive when I had spent what little money I had on travel and WASC expenses. I learned a lot from Simon and Amy. I am thankfull for the mentoring. I observed you in action and took onboard what I thought where good tactics and threw away those I didnt believe suited WASC. Knowing you and having your support was key to me improving my activism and growing. Thank you to Lynn Maclaren and Katrina Love for bringing me into the political side of conservation and giving me a better understanding of politics. You where also key to my development. Much love to you both. Thank you to Melissa Smith for being a brilliant Vp in the earliest days of wasc. You where so great to work with. You and I are so alike it is not funny and I really enjoyed working with you. You are a great friend. Much love. Thank you to Deborah Bluangel for being another of my rocks, one of those special people who where always there from the beginning when I was just beginning to plan forming this group. For your help when I had no food to eat, for providing me with transport and for the mass of emotional support you always offered in my darkest hours, in my darkest days. It is the people like you who where always there at my back, always there to talk to who picked me up and helped me keep going when things where taking their toll. Love you Deb! One person alone however deserves a special thanks. Tamara Hopkins. I will never forget the day you grabbed me by the palms in the kitchen and said- youre not happy at all with life are you babe? make the change Ross, Take the plunge. If you want to save the sharks and you want to start WASC you do it, I know you will make me proud. Leave Telstra and put everything you have into it. I replied to Tamara saying No I am not happy in my work and I do desperately want to do my bit for the oceans. Tam I will do this. I will make WASC a success. I will form a good organisation, we will represent your average Australian and we will help and save sharks, but anything worthwhile like this requires sacrifice. I will make this work, I will not fail,and I will not give up but we may lose a lot. We may lose everything. This is not going to be easy, nothing worthwhile ever is, but I will not disappoint you and I will not fail i give you my word. Thank you Tamara for being my rock. For being the unseen force behind The Sharkman. For giving me strength when I was worn out. For putting up with all the time I put into studying Sharks and the lack of time I spent with you. For being there and saying Yes you can Ross, you can do this.You have always believed in me 100% and the support you have given me has been immense. Thank you to Loui Bell, Natalie Banks, Jake Elliot, Jodi Hayes. There are so many people to thank and I just cant mention them all here. If you are reading this and thinking I have forgotten rest assured I have not! You are all in my thoughts right now! Thank you all! Everyone!. I think the biggest thanks should go to the Western Australian community as a whole. To all those who stood up for the oceans, for the sharks and made their voices heard. Our war for the sharks here in Perth is not over yet. The government has merely lost ground and retreated back a trench. The Imminent threat policy remains in place and the government will now revert back to hunting sharks deemed a threat once within a Kilometer from shore. WE must ensure that the imminent threat policy is repealed and that these sharks, if anything are tagged and added to the Shark monitoring network. Not killed. I personally hope to see the Eco-shark barrier take off like a rocket and it looks like the government is finally going to look at the sensible and effective alternatives. We will be here to ensure that is what they do. We will strongly oppose the targeting of so called rogue sharks and continue to promote education, research and protection. If our Fisheries Department are ever to catch a shark deemed an imminent threat it should be for the purpose of tagging and adding to the Shark monitoring network. We have much work to do on many different shark conservation issues and if it to do with Sharks in WA WASC will be there. For now I think we can all sit back, breathe a sigh of relief and relax, and be proud of what we have all achieved. I apologize for the poor grammar etc. I have written this in a rush. I am going home to rest as I am not well. If I was well I do believe I would probably have more than a few beers in celebration. I just wanted to thank everyone involved in WAs fight for an effective and shark friendly solution. To everyone who has supported WASC. To anyone has taken part in a small way or a big way. Thank you all of you. We are making progress, much work to do! WASC Founder and Spokesperson Ross Weir
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:51:20 +0000
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