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Crocodile hunting 'could help Aborigines'

By Nick Squires in Sydney

27 November 2003 - Hunters should be allowed to kill Australia's saltwater crocodiles, officials said yesterday.

The man eaters, which can be 20ft long, have been a protected species for three decades.

However, a Northern Territory report says Aboriginal communities could earn thousands of pounds by allowing big game hunters to shoot crocodiles on their traditional lands.

Saltwater crocodiles were driven almost to extinction before hunting them was banned in the early 1970s.

Since then their numbers have risen steadily, with an estimated 70,000 in the Northern Territory and thousands more in Western Australia and Queensland.

A draft management plan released by the Northern Territory's parks service would allow hunters to shoot up to 600 crocodiles a year. But only those at least 13ft long would be killed.

Aboriginal communities already run pig and buffalo hunting safaris.

Vast tracts of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia are owned by Aboriginal tribes. Outsiders must seek a permit to enter their land.

Under the proposal, Aborigines living in remote parts of the Northern Territory would be paid a daily rate.

They could also be employed as guides, showing tourists the best places to find large crocodiles.

The preferred hunting method is to venture out at night in a boat, using a spotlight to scan the surface of a river or estuary for the tell-tale glint of eyes.

The animal is then shot or, for the more daring, harpooned, before being dragged into the boat and skinned.

At least 10 people have been killed by crocodiles in Australia since 1982.

Source: The Telegraph

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