A security guard was killed by one in Bali on the 27th December 2013 at about 3am. The victim Ambar Arianto Mulyo aged 59 worked at a restaurant near the Bali Hyatt in the Sanur area of Bali where the incident occurred.

Apparently Mr Mulyo had caught the python by hand and put it over his shoulders, the python then wrapped itself around his body and strangled/asphyxiated him to death. Despite a crowd watching people were unable to save him. The snake, reported to be about 5 metres in length, escaped into nearby bushes. It was not attempting to eat him – just defending itself.

Google to find great images like this one – an alligator in Florida eating a Burmese Python.

The idea is to place hook and lines a kilometre off the Perth beaches of Ocean Reef, Mullaloo, Trigg, Scarborough, Floreat, City Beach, Cottesloe, North Cottesloe and Port Leighton as well as at several beaches in the South West. All sharks hooked over 3m will be killed and any 3m+ White, Bull or Tiger sharks seen inside two sprawling Kill zones will also be pursued and killed.

The Premier stated that we have had 20 fatal sharks attacks in WA in the past 100 years – seven of them in the past 3 years.

I was at the recent protest on Cottesloe Beach spurred on by my daughter and from what I can gather this government sanctioned approach is unlikely to help the public or surfers much, if at all. Plus the baited hooks are likely to effect and kill many other marine creatures, as baited hooks attract all comers not just the targeted species.

Sharks are mainly migratory and as any ecologist will tell you if you remove an animal like a shark from it’s habitat another individual will likely take up on the opening that creates in the ecosystem. So unless the cull is a permanent feature of government policy the sharks will surely return.

As this is not an issue that will go away quickly I ask what do you think? Love some feedback.

For more useful, balanced information on shark attacks and culling see www.australasianscience.com.au/article/issue-december-2013/how-prevent-shark-attacks.html. Thanks Edwina for recently sharing this.

I feel sorry for the sharks but also want safe beaches. I would be interested to know if most or all these shark victims are surfers or swimmers or both. Maybe more research into the anti shark wet suits. Two types pictured may be the answer. One is supposedly invisible to sharks – so "if I can't see it then it can't be food". The other is very visual so "I can see it but It doesn't look like food so don't bite it".

I think that’s the idea anyway.

I love the sound as they start off, slow and relatively quiet but the chortling soon becomes full on hysterical laughter. A very, very different bird call to the quiet and delicate chirping and tweeting of British garden birds I grew up listening to in the UK.

We often have these Aussie icons calling and laughing just outside my bedroom window. Even though they are not particularly welcomed by many WA conservationists as they are a successful invasive species, I think they have become part and parcel of our daily lives in the west.