AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 02 October 05 NT minister rejects calls for crocodile cull
Northern Territory Environment Minister Marion Scrymgour says emotional calls for a crocodile cull should be resisted after two fatal attacks in less than a week.
Commercial diver Russell Butel, 55, was killed by a crocodile on Thursday in water off the Coburg Peninsula, days after the body of 37-year-old Russell Harris was found on Groote Eylandt.
There have been calls to reintroduce culls in the Territory to combat the growing crocodile population.
Ms Scrymgour says it is a knee-jerk reaction to the tragic deaths.
"Both of those issues need to be kept separate, they're not the same and to bring them into the same area is to be reactionary to the whole issue and it's not conducive to anyone, it doesn't help anyone," she said.
A draft crocodile management plan currently before Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell includes a proposal to allow 25 crocodiles to be hunted each year.
Ms Scrymgour says there could be deficiencies in the plan, such as the management of crocodiles in remote areas, but she says they will be examined at a later date.
"Under these circumstances, to talk safaris, to talk culling when you've had these two unfortunate incidents is wrong, and we will take some time to look at that once park rangers and police and others have done their investigation," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1472708.htm

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 02 October 05 Top End croc victim 'not foolhardy'
The family of a commercial diver killed by a crocodile in the Northern Territory last week says he had extensive experience in Top End waters and was not foolhardy.
Russel Butel, 55, was collecting live fish with his dive partner off the Coburg Peninsula on Thursday afternoon when he was killed by a saltwater crocodile.
He was the second person taken by a crocodile in Northern Territory waters in less than a week.
Mr Butel's family has released a statement saying he fell in love with the tropical waters of the Top End during a visit to Gove in the 1980s, prompting him and his partner to open a local dive shop.
The family says Mr Butel's experience in Territory waters was extensive and he was not foolhardy regarding his safety and that of his crew.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1472825.htm

SUNDAY TERRITORIAN (Darwin, Australia) 02 October 05 Croc horror haunts mum (Rebekah Cavanagh)
The heartbroken mother of a man killed by a crocodile at a Territory beach is now terrified of water and refuses to leave her home.
Jackie Harris, whose son Russell was taken by a 4m saltwater crocodile on Groote Eylandt in the NT's northeast, said she was coming to terms with his death. Mrs Harris, speaking to the media for the first time since the attack and being released from hospital, told the Sunday Territorian last Thursday: "I have only just found out how he died and I would prefer not to talk about it at this stage.
"All I can say is he was the best son that anyone could ever have."
Her husband Donald said from Nottingham, in England, how his wife could not stop thinking about water and was too frightened to even go into her back yard.
"She's OK but just keeps thinking of water," he said. It terrifies her."
Mrs Harris's family kept the details of her son's death from her, fearing she would not cope with the news of the croc attack.
They initially told her Russell had drowned.
Mrs Harris was shopping when her daughter-in-law, Russell's wife Jennifer, telephoned with the news.
"When she got back home and I told her she fell down in the hallway and just lay there screaming for two hours," Mr Harris said.
Mrs Harris was taken to hospital suffering shock and had to be sedated.
She was released four days later and has not left her house since, he said.
Russell Harris was a mining superintendent with Gemco, which mines manganese on the island, 800km northeast of Darwin.
He was killed by a croc while snorkelling at Picnic Beach, on the northeast of Groote Eylandt, last Saturday afternoon.
His wife was on the beach with a friend when he disappeared.
Russell had left Britain several years ago and had worked in the US and Mexico, before moving to Australia five months ago.
His sister Georgina has flown to Darwin to take her brother's body home for burial.
http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,16787486%5E13569,00.html