THE world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater says killing sharks off the WA coast is “crazy” and they should be left alone.

And he says he would be “honoured” to die in a shark attack. The 11-time world champion this week condemned the state’s catch-and-kill policy.

Slater, who is headed to WA for the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro, from April 2-13, had this message for the Barnett Government: “Leave ’em alone”.

“I think it’s kind of silly,” Slater said.

“Humans want to control everything. We try to control (beach) erosion, we try to control sharks … we just try to control everything on this earth and it’s just crazy.

“We kill 100 million sharks a year or something crazy to make (shark fin) soup. We throw them back finless and dying.”

The 42-year-old from Florida in the US said he was saddened sharks were being slaughtered in Australia.

“It’s like we’ve lost all feeling for other creatures on some level and I think that’s kind of sad,” he said.

“If I got eaten by a shark, I’d be honoured.”

Slater was on the Gold Coast this week competing in the Quiksilver Pro ahead of WA’s premier surfing competition next month.

The Conservation Council WA, Sea Shepherd, Animal Amnesty, West Australians for Shark Conservation and the Greens applauded his comments.

The groups are campaigning for an end to WA’s program of deploying drum lines off Perth and the South-West to catch and kill great white, tiger and bull sharks larger than 3m.

Not one great white has been caught since the operation began in February.