Right: A crocodile jumps clear of the water to take an offering from a tour boat. Many argue that crocodiles, despite their fearsome reputation, are vital for attracting overseas tourists to northern Australia.Further implications
It seems unlikely that a culling program will be introduced in the immediate future. The current Queensland crocodile management strategy is intended to extend until 2017. What has attracted immediate critical attention on crocodile management policies in Queensland are two deaths over the last four years, one of which seems to have been in part attributable to improper treatment of a crocodile formerly recognised as a threat to human beings.There have been claims that the state's crocodile relocation program is severely faulted and has been badly implemented. In this context call for the culling of Queensland saltwater crocodiles might almost be expected.
However, critics of crocodile culling note that Queensland is not the Northern Territory. In the Northern Territory crocodile numbers have grown dramatically since saltwater crocodiles were protected in the early 1970s. However, the growth of saltwater crocodile numbers in Queensland has been far slower and the species is still classed as 'vulnerable'. This has been largely attributable to disruption of crocodile hatching sites, in large part because of increased settlement.
A dramatic growth in population and development in Queensland has had two opposing consequences. One is that crocodile population growth is being held back; however, the other consequence is that with increased human habitation in a wider range of territory the likelihood of saltwater crocodiles and human beings coming into unfavourable contact with each other is greater.
It has to be acknowledged, however, that the problem is as much that human beings are in crocodile territory as that crocodiles are in human territory.
The Queensland Government is proposing a revamping of its crocodile-wise education campaign. The focus of this campaign is that human beings need to be educated to behave cautiously and appropriately in areas where they are likely to encounter saltwater crocodiles.
In the Northern Territory, on the other hand, where crocodile numbers have grown much more rapidly, there is already a regulated culling program in operation. Under this program some 600 saltwater crocodiles are culled annually. It has been proposed that this program be extended into commercial safari hunting for a limited number of crocodiles each year. This proposal has been rejected by the federal government on the basis that any culling undertaken by amateur safari hunters would be likely to result in some crocodiles either being injured but not killed or killed inhumanely. It seems unlikely that any renewed application to have 'culling' conducted by amateur safari hunters would be likely to win federal government approval.