On Landcarer for each day of the#CoastcareWeek22, we're highlighting different marine issues and topics! Today we're talking about Shark Nets!
On Monday 5th, a pair of hammerhead sharks were spotted inside the nets of Bondi Beach... once again raising questions about the effectiveness of shark nets - given the ease in which the pair of sharks managed to evade them.
Ultimately, the safety provided by shark nets isn't enough to counteract the damage they cause to other species. A report released in July found more than 80% of wildlife caught in shark nets were non-targeted species.Currently, in NSW, shark nets are installed across 51 beaches from Newcastle to Wollongong. At 150 metres long, six metres high and set at a depth of 10 metres, the nets don’t cover the full length of beaches and often the public don’t know where they are. Additionally, 2/5 in sharks caught in nets are found on the beach side of the net - and attacks still occur at meshed beaches.
Laurence Chlebeck, from the Humane Society International, says the nets may not be very good at stopping target sharks but they are good at killing marine life. “The best guess I can give is some 20,000 marine animals have been killed in the program and what we’re now realising is that it’s for nothing more than a false sense of security,” Trebek says.
According to a recent Department of Primary Resources report on shark net performance, 376 marine animals were tangled in NSW nets in '21-22. That number included 51 “target sharks” and 325 “non-target animals”. Furthermore:
- The target sharks included 28 white sharks, 12 bull sharks, and 11 tiger sharks
- A fifth of the marine life caught in the NSW shark nets were threatened species
- They included 14 critically endangered grey nurse sharks, 19 vulnerable green turtles, 16 endangered leatherback turtles, and four endangered loggerhead turtles.
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Emily Mason
Sydney NSW
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