Hollywood star Eric Bana will narrate a new anti-shark culling documentary

Hollywood actor Eric Bana will lend his voice to an anti-shark culling documentary titled Envoy: Cull.

The Time Traveler’s Wife star, 52, will narrate the ‘graphic’ new movie, which aims to highlight the negative impact of Queensland and New South Wales’ controversial shark control programs, and offer less damaging alternatives to marine life.

The film joins forces with ocean conservationists, who want to spur on the debate of the effectiveness of shark nets and drum lines – also known as baited hooks – particularly on the Gold Coast under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government.

Eric, who has starred in major blockbusters such as Troy and Hulk, said he was happy to ‘give voice to an important issue’.

‘It seems unimaginable to me that a system would be put in place to punish an animal for roaming in its natural habitat,’ he told The Sunday Mail.

Produced by Brisbane filmmaker Andre Borell, the documentary argues that current shark control programs – including the use of drum lines – actually draw sharks closer to the coastline, trapping marine life such as dolphins and whales in the process.

‘It’s not sunshine and rainbows, this documentary. It’s quite brutal in what is exposed,’ Andre told Channel Nine.

‘The Gold Coast features extremely heavily in the film, because it’s heavily netted and it’s heavily drum-lined.’

Shark nets have been in place on the Gold Coast since 1962.

Up until September 2020, there hadn’t been a fatal shark attack on Gold Coast beaches in over 60 years.

But tragedy struck at Greenmount Beach in Coolangatta weeks ago, when real estate agent Nick Slater, 46, died after what is believed to be an attack by a great white.

Mark Furner, fisheries minister for Queensland, defended the programs in place and told Channel Nine: ‘Human life always comes first for the Palaszczuk government.’

In 2018, Palaszczuk responded to animal activists after six sharks were caught and killed in the waters around Whitsunday Island in the wake of two serious attacks.

‘Can you imagine the public outcry if anything else happened up there in that particular region during school holidays if the Department of Fisheries took no action?’ she said at the time.