Trial to remove shark nets from three Sydney and Central Coast beaches a good first step, scientists say
Shark nets, about 150 metres long and installed roughly 500 metres offshore at selected beaches in New South Wales and Queensland, were 'like a table tennis net on a soccer pitch', said Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane World for Animals.
'They're not the barriers that people think they are,' he said. 'Sharks can easily swim around, underneath, over the top. In fact, 40% of sharks are caught on the inside of the net – so these animals have already been to the beach.'
The nets also 'indiscriminately' catch marine life, killing not just target shark species, but also turtles, dolphins and other marine life, he said.
NSW first introduced the nets in the 1930s, with the program since expanded to include 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong.
Nets were only one component of the state's shark management program, which also included drone surveillance, shark tagging and real-time detection, SMART drumlines (where sharks were caught, tagged and released) and community education.
Last week the state government asked three councils – Waverley, Northern Beaches and Central Coast – to each nominate a beach where the nets could be removed.
Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter
That was a good first step, Chlebeck said, acknowledging 'it would have been tough for a government to end a program with almost a century of legacy'.
Other states such as South Australia and Western Australia had already 'moved with the times' and did not use culling or shark nets, he said. Instead they relied on non-lethal measures like surveillance, shark monitoring, public education and rapid response.
In contrast, in May the Queensland government announced it would expand the use of lethal controls including shark nets and baited drumlines, a move one expert described as a 'tough on sharks' approach that was more about culture wars than implementing evidence-backed policy.
In South Australia, Dr Brianna Le Busque has been researching public attitudes towards sharks and shark bites for almost 10 years.
The environmental science program director at the University of South Australia said while the public's fear of sharks remained steady, there had been a shift in attitudes towards greater support for non-lethal methods.
'People want to be protected, and they want to feel safe in the water, but there's less and less support for lethal mitigation,' Le Busque said.
Many people were not aware that the nets were actually lethal – designed to catch and kill sharks rather than acting as a barrier. 'We're essentially talking about a big fishing net floating out in the ocean,' she said.
Sign up to Clear Air Australia
Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis
after newsletter promotion
The trial removal in NSW was a positive step, Le Busque said, given the nets did not offer protection and harmed marine life. She pointed to Australian research published last year into 196 unprovoked shark incidents, which found no difference in unprovoked human-shark interactions at netted versus non-netted beaches since the 2000s.
Even so, their removal would be a big change for people living in those areas, Le Busque said. From that perspective, the trial provided an opportunity to build community awareness and demonstrate the effectiveness of other non-lethal mitigation techniques.
The NSW agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said the safety of beachgoers was the government's 'number one priority'.
In determining its approach to the upcoming season, Moriarty said the government would consider evidence from the last few seasons and feedback from local councils.
Councils have until 22 August to respond to the NSW government on their preferred option for the removal of nets for 2025-26 patrol season.
Waverley council said its support for the trial was contingent on the increased use of drones and SMART drumlines resourced by the state government.
'Waverley Council's position is clear: the safety of our community comes first,' the mayor, Will Nemesh, said.
Shark interactions and bites are rare in Australian waters. In the last 10 years, an average of 20 people were injured and 2.8 people killed in shark incidents each year, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database. That is compared to 150 coastal drowning deaths last year, including 84 drownings at beaches.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
I was terrified of bees – until the day 30,000 of them moved into my house
As a child, I was allergic to bees. Just one sting on my fingertip could swell my whole arm. I was allergic to most things – dust, cat hair, pollen – and was always clutching an inhaler, sniffling into my sleeve and keeping a safe distance from stinging insects. As an adult, when my family bought our first house, a mid-century gem nestled in thick bushland on Sydney's Northern Beaches, I wasn't expecting a visit from my former nemesis. But one warm spring day, we heard the unmistakable hum of 20,000 of those honey-producing insects. 'Bees!' I shouted, as a large dark ball headed straight towards me and my baby girl. Terrified, I grabbed her and slammed the patio doors just in time. The swarm broke apart in the air and the buzzing became thunderous. I later learned that bees swarm when their current hive becomes overcrowded. Once the swarming instinct is triggered, scouts head out to find a new location and the old queen and her worker bees fly off to their new, less cramped abode. The bees left behind will then raise a new queen. During renovations we discovered masses of old honeycomb and dead bees in the ceilings and walls of our home; the swarm was likely attracted to that scent. As tens of thousands of bees squeezed into the wall cavity of our living room, my first instinct was to call a beekeeper. Bees are a precious creature – vital for pollination, food security and a healthy ecosystem. Unfortunately, the beekeeper couldn't help. 'Once the bees are in a wall, they're very difficult to extract,' he said, before hanging up. I called another and another, until eventually I resorted to pest control. We sealed the entry points along the wall and hoped another swarm wouldn't find its way to us. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Years later, one did. We had just returned home from a stint in Singapore when I heard the familiar buzz of bees announcing their arrival. This swarm was big – 30,000 strong – and they quickly pushed their way into the walls and our stairwell cavity. I tried again to find a beekeeper to guide us, desperately searching the internet for local beekeeping associations; I couldn't stomach calling pest control again. This time, we found the right person – a young beekeeper who arrived on our doorstep an hour later with his gear and beekeeper suit. First, he set up a lure outside – a bait hive, filled with old comb and a few drops of lemongrass oil, which mimics a bee pheromone and can entice a swarm to move. He put up a ladder and placed the wooden box near the entry point to the wall, hoping the queen and her workers would leave our property and set themselves up in the bait hive. Over the next week, we waited and watched and hoped. Unfortunately, the bees did not budge. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Plan B (bee?) was to entice the swarm from closer range. By now, the bees were already building comb and storing honey in a small cavity above the stairs, preparing to rear eggs and larvae. The beekeeper convinced us to let him cut a hole in our floor; he then placed the box directly on top of the hive – right in the middle of our living space. We got on with our daily lives, cooking, watching TV, working … all the while cohabiting alongside thousands of bees. Occasionally, one would pop out of our air conditioning unit or get confused on its pollen route and fly through an open window. But for the most part, they were excellent housemates. Living with the constant low hum of bees and learning more about their behaviour and habits from the beekeeper, my fear and anxiety began to dissipate. I stopped using insect spray and instead, transported the lost bees back outside on a piece of paper. I wasn't once stung – they seemed to sense I wasn't going to harm them. Weeks later, we were finally ready to move the bees to greener pastures – a farm where the beekeeper already kept established hives. He confessed it was the most difficult hive removal he'd ever done. It took several 20-litre buckets full of honey and comb, a lot of smoke to calm the bees down, and some escapees, but he managed to save two-thirds of the hive. Once the bees were gone, the house felt too quiet. Wax moths came to clean up the leftover beeswax and pollen. Spiders came to eat the wax moth and larvae. We repaired the floor. Every spring, when the air starts to lose its chill and pollen makes me sneeze, I keep watch for scout bees and make a very important phone call. The beekeeper answers: he'll be round with a bait hive to lure the bees away from our walls, should they come to visit. So far, so good. Pip Harry is an author. Her latest young adult novel, Drift, inspired by her experience with the bees, is out in Australia on 30 July (Hachette Australia, $17.99)
Times
10 hours ago
- Times
‘Cruel' shark nets to be removed from Sydney's beaches
Fifty years after Steven Spielberg's Jaws panicked swimmers and surfers the world over, Sydney is preparing to banish the shark nets that have protected its beaches for nearly nine decades. Under pressure from conservationists who argue that the nets kill hundreds of harmless marine creatures each year, Australia's largest city is preparing to remove them at some of the most popular beaches, potentially including Bondi, in time for the summer. The city will trial the removal of some nets from December and has asked coastline councils to nominate beaches that could take part. 'We know the problems with nets are widespread, in particular around getting other species of marine life caught in those areas,' said Ryan Park, the New South Wales health minister, when announcing the trial on Monday. Sydney had not experienced a fatal shark attack in 59 years until the British national Simon Nellist, 35, was taken by a large great white at Little Bay in the city's south in February 2022. Nellist, a certified diving instructor from Cornwall, was at an unprotected beach. More than 50 beaches in New South Wales are protected by nets that were first installed in 1937 after a decade and a half of repeated shark attacks. In the first year of operation, Sydney's nets snared more than 600 sharks, but the number caught at the most intensively meshed sites has since declined to an average of 140 a year, most of which are released alive. • Swimmer braves shark-infested waters to mark 50 years of Jaws The nets, generally about 150 metres long and six metres high, entangle sharks and other marine creatures that swim into them by chance. However, they were never a foolproof solution, as sharks could still enter shallow waters by swimming under or over the mesh. Pressure to remove the nets has increased after official figures, released in May, showed only 11 per cent of the marine animals caught by them were potentially dangerous sharks, such as great whites. Most of the time the nets trapped harmless marine animals, including dolphins and threatened leatherback turtles. Many popular Australian beaches now use newer technologies to guard against shark attacks. These include placing electronic tags on dangerous sharks that allow their movements to be monitored, shark surveillance drones and 'smart' drum lines — underwater cables that send out alerts when big sharks get snagged so they can be retrieved and released alive offshore. Even shark attack victims have welcomed the move to remove the nets. Dave Pearson, a surfer who survived a severe bull shark attack in 2011, said: 'I'm up for whatever the scientists believe is the best thing to do. Where I surf we have nothing [by way of shark protection].' Pearson founded The Bite Club, an organisation for shark-attack survivors which has 500 members. 'We've all got to learn to use the ocean better and truly understand what is happening out there,' he told reporters at the weekend. But Fred Pawle, a Sydney-based surfing writer, warned that surfers, fishermen and divers were all reporting an increase in shark sightings off the coast of New South Wales. 'So it's not a sensible decision to remove nets. It's deliberately endangering lives in order to pander to Green voters, most of whom never go in the water,' he told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trial to remove shark nets from three Sydney and Central Coast beaches a good first step, scientists say
A trial to remove shark nets from three Sydney and Central Coast beaches has been welcomed by scientists who say the nets create a false sense of security and are ineffective at preventing shark bites. Shark nets, about 150 metres long and installed roughly 500 metres offshore at selected beaches in New South Wales and Queensland, were 'like a table tennis net on a soccer pitch', said Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane World for Animals. 'They're not the barriers that people think they are,' he said. 'Sharks can easily swim around, underneath, over the top. In fact, 40% of sharks are caught on the inside of the net – so these animals have already been to the beach.' The nets also 'indiscriminately' catch marine life, killing not just target shark species, but also turtles, dolphins and other marine life, he said. NSW first introduced the nets in the 1930s, with the program since expanded to include 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong. Nets were only one component of the state's shark management program, which also included drone surveillance, shark tagging and real-time detection, SMART drumlines (where sharks were caught, tagged and released) and community education. Last week the state government asked three councils – Waverley, Northern Beaches and Central Coast – to each nominate a beach where the nets could be removed. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter That was a good first step, Chlebeck said, acknowledging 'it would have been tough for a government to end a program with almost a century of legacy'. Other states such as South Australia and Western Australia had already 'moved with the times' and did not use culling or shark nets, he said. Instead they relied on non-lethal measures like surveillance, shark monitoring, public education and rapid response. In contrast, in May the Queensland government announced it would expand the use of lethal controls including shark nets and baited drumlines, a move one expert described as a 'tough on sharks' approach that was more about culture wars than implementing evidence-backed policy. In South Australia, Dr Brianna Le Busque has been researching public attitudes towards sharks and shark bites for almost 10 years. The environmental science program director at the University of South Australia said while the public's fear of sharks remained steady, there had been a shift in attitudes towards greater support for non-lethal methods. 'People want to be protected, and they want to feel safe in the water, but there's less and less support for lethal mitigation,' Le Busque said. Many people were not aware that the nets were actually lethal – designed to catch and kill sharks rather than acting as a barrier. 'We're essentially talking about a big fishing net floating out in the ocean,' she said. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The trial removal in NSW was a positive step, Le Busque said, given the nets did not offer protection and harmed marine life. She pointed to Australian research published last year into 196 unprovoked shark incidents, which found no difference in unprovoked human-shark interactions at netted versus non-netted beaches since the 2000s. Even so, their removal would be a big change for people living in those areas, Le Busque said. From that perspective, the trial provided an opportunity to build community awareness and demonstrate the effectiveness of other non-lethal mitigation techniques. The NSW agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said the safety of beachgoers was the government's 'number one priority'. In determining its approach to the upcoming season, Moriarty said the government would consider evidence from the last few seasons and feedback from local councils. Councils have until 22 August to respond to the NSW government on their preferred option for the removal of nets for 2025-26 patrol season. Waverley council said its support for the trial was contingent on the increased use of drones and SMART drumlines resourced by the state government. 'Waverley Council's position is clear: the safety of our community comes first,' the mayor, Will Nemesh, said. Shark interactions and bites are rare in Australian waters. In the last 10 years, an average of 20 people were injured and 2.8 people killed in shark incidents each year, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database. That is compared to 150 coastal drowning deaths last year, including 84 drownings at beaches.
