WA shark cull: 'No evidence policy reduced attacks,' Sea Shepherd says

Updated

Marine activist group Sea Shepherd has called on the Environmental Protection Authority to reject Western Australia's proposed catch-and-kill shark policy on the grounds there was no evidence it would reduce attacks.

The EPA received 6,751 submissions and two petitions during its four-week consultation period on the State Government's proposal, which would see baited drum lines set at popular beaches off the WA coast for three years during the summer.

Submissions closed earlier this week.

A three-month trial, costing the Government $1.3 million, which ran across Perth and the South West earlier this year saw 68 sharks killed and 99 released.

Under the policy, tiger, great white and bull sharks longer than three metres were killed if caught on the hooks near swimming beaches.

In its submission to the EPA, Sea Shepherd argued that while the number of attacks had increased, the rate of attacks per water-user had remained roughly the same.

The group said that from 2006 to 2013, beach attendance doubled at Perth's popular swimming spot Trigg Beach, from 48,851 to 98,209, and almost tripled at City Beach from 207,090 to 566,856.

At Bunker Bay, where surfer Kyle Burden died in 2011, attendance went from 87,783 to 119,947 over the same period.

Sea Shepherd's Natalie Banks said there was no evidence that the drum line trial had stopped an attack.

"In fact, the numbers themselves would show that for quite a while before the drum lines were installed there wasn't a shark incident either," she said.

"So it's very difficult to say whether the drum lines are working."

She said the Government had failed to properly explore alternatives such as expanding the eco-barrier, which was installed in Coogee Beach last year, and catch, tag and release programs.

"Whereever possible we've actually tried to say to the Government, please consider alternatives," Ms Banks said.

"I would have thought they would have trialled and tested a few various alternatives before they got to the stage where they needed to drop drum lines."

But Ms Banks's view was not shared by all Sea Shepherd members.

Advisory Board member Ian Campbell said he believed the WA Government was taking responsible action.

The former federal environment minister said his successor, Greg Hunt, was right to approve the trial, and his activist colleagues were wrong.

"I would not want to be one of the activists urging the Government not to put in place mitigation measures," he said.

"Because if an attack, a fatal attack occurs, any one of those groups would have blood on their hands."

An earlier review of the catch-and-kill policy by the Department of Premier and Cabinet recommended the program be extended for the next three summers and then reviewed, but it could not determine whether it was effective at keeping swimmers safe.

The review found that while it was "likely" to have reduced the risk of attack, the trial "has been short, and shark attacks generally too infrequent, to have generated substantial quantitative data to measure the reduction in risk".

Topics: shark, wa

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