This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Josh Frydenberg has challenged Western Australia over its management of sharks, proposing the state pay for a network of satellite-linked baited drumlines to protect high-traffic beaches.

Frydenberg said 176 of the Smart (shark management alert in real time) drumlines could be deployed along 260km of WA’s 12,000km coastline, covering both Perth beaches and popular surf beaches in the southwest.

Eleven of the 17 fatal shark attacks in WA in the past 25 years occurred within the proposed area. There have been 12 fatal shark attacks along the east coast in the same period.

There have been 11 non-fatal shark bites in WA since 2016 and 12 in New South Wales.

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The WA fisheries minister, Dave Kelly, said neither Frydenberg nor the NSW government, which has been trialling the drumlines at various locations since 2015, had provided scientific evidence that they actually reduced the incidence of shark attacks, or produced data on where tagged sharks went after being released.

“There really isn’t anything new in the federal Liberal government’s proposal and it fails to provide any scientific evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of these drumlines,” Kelly said.

Kelly also said the cost estimated by Frydenberg of $5m to $7m for a six-month trial was too low, saying that based on figures from maintaining the previous lethal drumlines network it would cost $20m a year.

He said WA would stick to its policy of subsidising personal shark shields, tagging and monitoring shark movements through the Sharksmart website, and deploying helicopters and drones to spot sharks.

Smart drumlines contain baited hooks, which trigger an alert once something of appreciable weight tugs the line.

That alert is sent via satellite, allowing boat crews monitoring the network to get to the hook before the animal on the line drowns. Sharks of a species and size considered to be a potential risk are tagged, towed further out to sea and released.

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Other species that become caught or tangled in the line, such as endangered loggerhead turtles, one of which got tangled in a line off Ballina-Lennox Head in NSW in November, are released.

WA has fewer boat ramps in the southwest than in the NSW trial sites, raising concerns that it would take longer for response teams to reach the line. Some species die quickly if restrained.

According to data published by the NSW government, three sharks and one black marlin have either been found dead on Smart drumlines or later washed up dead on the beach since the trial began in December 2016.

Two of those were white sharks, which are listed as vulnerable under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act.

A spokesman from Frydenberg’s office said Smart drumlines did not require a referral under the EPBC Act because they are non-lethal.

Lethal drumlines without alert beacons were trialled by the former WA government in 2013-2014, but the program was blocked by the Environmental Protection Authority because of “a high degree of scientific uncertainty” over the potential impact on white sharks. The Barnett government then funded research into shark shields.

Research published by the CSIRO in February put the population of white sharks in Australian waters east of Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria to central Queensland at between 470 and 1,030, with a total white shark population including juveniles of between 909 and 12,802.

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Researchers gave a less firm population estimate for waters west of Wilson’s Promontory to north-west WA, giving a range of between 760 to 2,250 adult sharks and not speculating on the juvenile population.

“Given the high incidence of shark attacks in Western Australia, and the recent release of a CSIRO report into great white shark numbers off the west coast of Australia, now is an opportune time for the Western Australian government to take further steps to protect is citizens from shark attacks,” Frydenberg said.

The head of campaigns for Humane Society International, Nicola Beynon, said it was disappointing to see an environment minister championing a policy that could affect threatened species over WA’s approach.