Crocodile Hunting Urged After Fatal Attack on Woman in Australia

After the suspected crocodile attack on a missing woman in Australia, a local politician urged authorities to take action against the animals by reviving crocodile-shooting safaris.

"The numbers of crocodiles have exploded. All of crocodiles' predators have been removed," Bob Katter, independent MP who holds the neighboring electorate of Kennedy, said in a statement published in The Guardian.

"We can put nature back in balance if we have shooting safaris," he added.

Katter, who has been a longtime supporter of crocodile culling, said that crocodile numbers are continuously growing in northern Queensland since hunting of the reptile was banned in 1971. He strongly suggested that shooting safaris could reduce the risk to humans.

Nth Qld CapeTrib #CrocAttack.Croc numbers in NthQld R exploding.Croc shooting safaris can put nature Back-in-Balance pic.twitter.com/QHFkFR54du

— Hon Bob Katter MP (@RealBobKatter) May 30, 2016

The dispute over how to exercise control over a protected predator was revived after a woman was said to be attacked by a crocodile in Thornton Beach in Daintree National Park on Sunday.

Cindy Waldron, 46, vanished underwater at the beach after her friend Leeann Mitchell failed to drag her out of the crocodile's grip.

Authorities are still searching for Waldron, who was said to be celebrating in the beach over Mitchell's recovery from cancer.

According to a news report, environment department officials set three "croc traps" in the water to ensnare Waldron's presumed attacker.

Is 'Crocodile Culling' the answer?

Since 1985, there have been 24 known crocodile attacks in Queensland and seven people had been killed, according to department records.

Minor surveys conducted to respond to crocodile sightings or encounters in central and northern Queensland indicated that the crocodile population in the area "remains steady rather than increasing substantially." However, the studies do not provide enough numbers and trends to make assumptions.

In the neighboring Northern Territory, saltwater crocodile population during the hunting ban has grown from 3,000 to about 100,000 today.

However, Professor Grahame Webb, a renowned crocodile expert from Charles Sturt University in Darwin, said that crocodile culling is not the answer to prevent fatalities.

"I don't think it's a solution. I don't think they're out of control in Queensland, I don't think they're out of control anywhere," Webb told ABC.

"It's a management problem, wildlife management is about managing people. To go swimming at night, in a national park that everyone knows has crocodiles is something that you just don't do."