Personal watercraft (PWC) are essential for keeping most of the beaches safe for ocean swimmers in Australia. But, unfortunately, in the wrong hands, they can endanger some of the wildlife that makes Oz such a special place to visit—and that's exactly what happened recently at Adelaide beach.
A recent incident involving two PWC riders saw them zooming dangerously close to a pod of dolphins. An investigation is ongoing, but investigators from the Department of Environment and Water have some crucial video evidence, which shows one of the riders plowing through the pod while the other rider hovers nearby. But it's not only riding through the pod that would breach regulations, as just riding within 300 meters of marine animals is considered to be a violation.
It certainly looks like the rider was acting with malicious intent, but some people believe there's a lack of awareness surrounding the way that marine vehicles disrupt marine life.
Local dolphin behavior expert Melissa Blewitt said, "It changed their behavior, they sort of all became a bit erratic and started moving away from the main pod... Just the education around how to behave around marine mammals, whether it be the dolphins out here, we've spotted whales out here as well."
Blewitt is also calling for harsher penalties for anyone who violates marine safety regulations. The riders are still unidentified, as of yet, but the Department of Environment and Water intends to punish those responsible with the full force of the law.
Spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Water, Lisien Loan, said, "So it's up to $100,000 fine or two years in prison for interfering with a marine mammal and breaching some of those distances,"
This is far from the first bit of negative press surrounding PWC riders this year. So, here's hoping a few bad apples don't don't give the rest of us a bad name, because not much matches (legally) ripping a PWC around.
