Australia’s environment minister rejected a proposal for crocodile safari hunting yesterday, but increased the number of eggs and animals that can be harvested to cull their population and make the country’s north safer for people.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the five-year management plan would allow Australia’s Northern Territory to continue exporting crocodile products “on an ecologically sustainable basis.”
Both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles were hunted to near extinction, but have become plentiful in the tropical north since they became protected by federal law in 1971.
In March, after a spate of crocodile attacks killed four people, the Northern Territory government submitted a draft management plan that included crocodile safaris for paying clients, with quotas on the number of the reptiles that could be killed by tourists or trophy hunters.
Garrett said he gave the idea careful consideration but could not approve it.
“I am of the view that safari hunting is not a suitable approach for the responsible management of crocodiles,” he said in a statement.
The approved management plan allows an initial maximum harvest of 50,000 eggs — up from 35,000 in the previous plan — and 400 juveniles, 500 hatchlings and 500 adults for farming, food and export. The egg quota could increase if the population supports it, Garrett said. The plan also allows for the removal of crocodiles that are a threat to people or livestock.
“I am satisfied that the harvest of crocodiles and eggs proposed in this management plan will ensure the population remains at a sustainable level, and includes adequate measures to prevent any long-term drop in population,” Garrett said.
The Northern Territory is estimated to have 80,000 saltwater crocodiles, the highest number in Australia. Saltwater crocodiles, the world’s biggest reptile, grow up to 7m long.
They are more likely to attack humans than the smaller freshwater crocodiles that also inhabit the area.
Northern Territory Minister for Parks and Wildlife Karl Hampton welcomed the new management plan, but said in a statement that safaris would have helped the indigenous community, and his territorial government would “continue working toward approval for safaris in the future.”
The management plan is revised every five years.
Currently, collected eggs and captured crocodiles are harvested for meat, skin, teeth and skulls. The Northern Territory has exported an average of about 6,000 saltwater crocodile skins to other parts of Australia and the world each year for the last six years.
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