Removal of baited hooks could be ordered, but state government resolves to keep ‘important public safety program’ in place

The removal of baited hooks aimed at catching sharks that come close to popular West Australian beaches could be ordered as early as Wednesday afternoon when the WA supreme court decides on a legal bid by marine activists, Sea Shepherd, to halt the state’s controversial shark culling program.

In a late-night hearing in Perth on Tuesday evening, lawyers for Sea Shepherd sought an injunction to have the shark cull halted pending a judicial review into the way the program was implemented.

Great white, tiger and bull sharks are protected species in Western Australia and cannot legally be hunted. In order to cull them the WA government had to grant itself a special exemption, which Sea Shepherd argues was passed following an incorrect legal process.

“The exemption that the state purported to give it itself is ineffective because it was never gazetted, which is required for any subsidiary legislation,” the solicitor for Sea Shepherd, Patrick Pearlman, said. The WA government maintains that the correct process was followed. Justice James Edelman has reserved his decision until 4pm on Wednesday.

WA premier Colin Barnett said he was “absolutely confident that the policy in place is the right policy and we intend to continue it”. In the event the court orders the baited hooks removed on Wednesday, the WA government says it will simply pass the shark-cull exemption again within hours, this time following the correct process.

“This is an important public safety program and the state does not intend these proceedings to interfere with that,” WA’s deputy state solicitor, Rob Mitchell, said.

But Pearlman says it may not be that simple: “There’s a parliamentary process that’s triggered when things are gazetted. They can be subject to a motion to disallow and we would anticipate that motions to disallow will be lodged.”

The culling program was implemented in January after seven fatal shark attacks in three years off West Australian beaches. Baited drum lines are strung 1km from the shore of eight beaches in Perth and the state’s south-west, and sharks longer than three metres caught on the lines can be killed. The first shark was killed on Australia Day, 26 January.

One of those fatally attacked by a shark was 21-year-old boogie boarder Kyle Burden, whose mother, Sharon, joined Sea Shepherd in bringing the case. She said the sight of baited hooks off the beach where her son lost his life “disturbs me greatly”.

The policy has been the subject of international condemnation, including from actor Ricky Gervais and billionaire businessman Richard Branson. Protests held on beaches around the world have drawn thousands and polls have consistently shown that Australians oppose the measure. But premier Barnett is standing by shark baiting, arguing that “many West Australians who love to use the ocean – divers, surfers, swimmers and families – want increased protection from dangerous sharks at these beaches.”

In January the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, issued WA a similar exemption, this one from the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, citing a “national interest” in allowing the trapping and killing of the sharks.