PHOTOS have emerged today of a possibly dead whale shark being winched off the deck of the supertrawler according to a report on the Tasmanian Times website.
The Stop the Trawler Alliance said that the photos were sent to them by an informant who claims to be a crew member of the Geelong Star.
The whale shark has been the centre of a freedom of information battle between the Alliance and AFMA after AFMA or the Geelong Star‘s representatives, or both, were found to have lied and covered up the factory ship’s interaction with the creature in February this year.
AFMA are refusing to release the full video of the interaction with the whale shark.
Reports of February’s interaction initially came from the ship’s crew members before AFMA and the operators of the supertrawler were forced to comment following significant public outcry.
AFMA released a statement on the 19th February that “a whale shark ran into the outside of the net and became caught by two of its fins. The whale shark was subsequently freed from the net and swam away without difficulty. No injuries to the animal were observed.”
Then, on the 24th February AFMA released a statement on their website reporting that “video footage shows that the whale shark spent no more than four minutes out of the water. That is, the time from the animal being brought onto the boat, freed and being released back into the water was estimated to be 3min 35sec.”
There has still been no clarification from AFMA or the Geelong Star about why they deliberately misled the public.
AFMA have today put up the following response…
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) is aware of images released by the Stop the Trawler Alliance claiming to show the Geelong Star’s interaction with a whale shark on 11 February 2016.
AFMA has reviewed the images and confirms the first image is of the whale shark and is consistent with the information that AFMA has previously released on the interaction.
The second image of a shark being lifted by its tail is not of the whale shark interaction. AFMA’s observer reported the shark as a dusky shark.
