On Friday, 18 September, a Perth beachgoer lost their life in a tragic shark encounter at Sorrento Beach. Our hearts go out to their family and friends — no words can ease such a loss.

But grief is not a justification for revenge.

The Western Australian government's response to hunt down and kill a great white shark is irrational, unjust, and scientifically bankrupt. It will not bring anyone back. It will not make the ocean safer. It will only add another death to a tragedy that already carries too much. Culling species with the right to exist in their own habitat is an archaic, deeply flawed way of thinking, and has been proven to be ineffective. 

Every time we step into the sea, we enter the shark's world. We do so knowing the risks. That is our choice. The ocean is not our territory. It never was.

Killing a wild animal for behaving as millions of years of evolution shaped it to behave is not "safety." It is vengeance dressed up as a safety response and it is another act of disrespect toward the natural world we claim to love. This way of dealing with a tragedy is poisonous to the nature we are privileged to witness. 

We call on the WA government to:

· Abandon any plan to kill this shark
· Invest in non-lethal shark mitigation and public education instead
· Respect the marine ecosystem and the creatures that call it home

A shark should not die because we chose to swim. The public needs to be educated about the space we share with apex predators. 

Sign the petition. Say no to vengeance. Say yes to respect.