Upper house committee says nets damage other marine wildlife and recommends replacement of lethal drum lines

Shark nets create false sense of safety and should be phased out, inquiry finds

Shark nets in place across Australia to protect beachgoers should be phased out as they cause more harm than good, a Senate inquiry has found.

An upper house committee examined shark mitigation and deterrent measures in Australia, and specifically the use of mesh nets in New South Wales and Queensland.

“It is impossible for lethal shark control measures to guarantee public safety,” the committee said in its final report, released on Tuesday.

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The measures implemented by some governments, including mesh nets and traditional drum lines in NSW and Queensland, provided beachgoers with a false sense of security, the report found.

One of the arguments in support of using shark nets and drum lines is that just one shark-related fatality has been reported in Queensland since the introduction of lethal shark mitigation measures in the 1960s.

Similarly, in NSW, since nets were introduced between Newcastle and Wollongong in the 1930s, only one shark-related death has happened at a meshed beach.

There have been at least 13 people killed by sharks at unmeshed beaches on the NSW north coast over the past two years.

But the committee found the effectiveness of nets was difficult to evaluate, while the significant damage they cause to other marine wildlife was clear.

The report noted while the risk of encountering a shark was rare, any shark-related fatalities, injuries or near-misses captured huge public and media attention, influencing community demands for action.

“The committee is concerned that a heightened fear of sharks has led to responses that may calm the public and appear to provide an effective response but which are not verified by scientific evidence,” the report said.

The committee handed down 20 recommendations including that the NSW and Queensland governments immediately replace lethal drum lines with Smart drum lines and phase out shark meshing programs.

The report favours non-lethal shark control measures such as eco barriers, which physically separate swimmers from sharks, sonar technology, and various shark-spotting techniques.

The Humane Society International’s head of campaigns, Nicola Beynon, said the government needed to move away from outdated methods.

“Lethal shark nets and drum lines are more than 50 years behind scientific and animal welfare standards for dealing with marine wildlife, and this well-reasoned report is hopefully putting us a step closer in putting a stop to these cruel methods,” Beynon said on Tuesday.

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However, shark nets won’t be phased out from NSW beaches just yet, the Berejiklian government said. In response to the Senate recommendations, the NSW government noted on Wednesday there had only been one person killed by a shark at a meshed beach in NSW since the 1930s.

It will instead review the recent modifications made to its second net trial on NSW north coast beaches within the next year, a spokeswoman for the NSW primary industries minister, Niall Blair, said.

“Smart drum lines are complementing our meshing programs, however we will continue to compare the results of both technologies to make sure we can make decisions about the best protections,” she said.

The NSW Greens’ marine spokesman, Justin Field, on Wednesday called on Blair to abandon the nets and redirect the resources to where they will be more effective.

“The report shows that people are 100 times more likely to drown at the beach than to be killed by a shark in Australia,” he said. “The risk is infinitesimally small.

“The millions [of dollars] currently going into the shark net program should be directed to observation towers for our lifeguards and improving whole of beach and personal deterrent devices.”