Shark attacks: Here’s proof that the Baird government’s drumlines just don’t work

EXCLUSIVE: MORE than 80 per cent of sharks caught on the SMART drumlines are smaller than the predators responsible for attacking and killing surfers.

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MORE than 80 per cent of sharks caught so far on the Baird government’s so-called SMART drumlines are smaller than the predators mostly responsible for attacking and killing surfers and swimmers along the NSW coast.

The drumlines have been hailed as one of the government’s key weapons in the fight to reduce shark attacks, with an extra 100 lines deployed following last week’s attack on teen surfer Cooper Allen in Ballina.

But tagging data shows that of the 37 white pointers tagged, released offshore and tracked online since the drumlines were introduced last year, just six were 3m or above — and none of them was a full-grown adult.

Most of the serious and fatal attacks off NSW have involved sharks at least 3m in length, with the most recent fatal attack — on Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara off Ballina last February — involving a great white estimated to be as long as 4m.

Shark attack victim Cooper Allen gives the thumbs up from his hospital bed. Picture: Amanda Abate/Channel 7/Twitter

Cooper Allen was a friend of Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara, who was killed by a shark in February 2015 at Shelly Beach

The shark that attacked Cooper is thought to have been nearly 4m. A drumline installed near where he was mauled failed to protect him.

Northern NSW shark hunter Joel Merchant said the Baird government was playing games by neglecting the man-eaters that were lurking in the deep.

“These scientists are just randomly baiting a hook in the middle of nowhere and hoping a shark takes a bite,’’ Mr Merchant said.

“Imagine one of those marine scientists trying to tag an adult great white caught on one of the hooks. It would be pretty funny to watch.

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Shark attack victim Craig Inos in hospital after being attacked by a great white / Picture: Dylan Robinson

A 2.35m female great white shark tagged and released using MART drumline off Evans Head

Premier Mike Baird inspects a drumline off the coast of Ballina last December / Picture: Jason O'Brien

“They are going to spend millions on these drumlines and I promise you they won’t catch anything very big.

“At the end of the day you have the entire operation being run by scientists who know nothing about sharks — only what they have read in a textbook.”

The renowned shark hunter warned there would be more attacks to come over summer. “Their numbers are skyrocketing. Any fisherman will tell you that,” he said.

But the government’s chief shark scientist Vic Peddemors defended the SMART drumlines, denying juvenile or sub-adult sharks were harmless.

A great white shark breaks the surface of the water.

A SMART drumline deployed off the coast at Ballina / Picture: Jason O'Brien

“Our aerial patrols are flying up and down the coast every single day during school holidays and, since last year, every weekend but we are yet to see these huge sharks. The sharks we’re seeing ... are all in this size range we’ve been catching.”

Under the SMART (Shark Management Alert in Real Time) drumline program, rangers are alerted when sharks take baited hooks.

Captured sharks are hauled to the surface and released further out to sea after being fitted with two tags: a satellite tracking device and an “acoustic” tag implanted in the animal’s belly.

That tag is designed to last up to 10 years and triggers “listening posts” along the coast whenever an implanted shark comes close.

Dr Peddemors admitted only a “very small percentage” of great white sharks along the NSW coast would ever be caught and tagged.

A flower memorial at Shelly Beach for Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara / Picture: Brian Pamphilon