Shark nets pulled from north coast beaches over concerns about migrating whales
SHARK nets off five north coast NSW beaches, where surfers have been attacked, hauled in early because the government is worried about migrating whales.
NSW
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SHARK nets off five north coast NSW beaches — where surfers have been attacked in a string of incidents — are being hauled in early because the state government is worried about migrating whales being caught in them.
Locals are furious about the decision to pull up the nets because great whites and other deadly man-eaters are still lurking off the coast. One councillor is even calling for a shark cull.
A monster great white recently surfaced off Boulder Beach, near Lennox Head, close to two surfers, one of whom was bitten by a shark off Ballina last year. Another whopper came close to surfers at Lennox Head last week.
“There’s a lot of concern among the surfing community that shark numbers are still high,” Ballina councillor Phil Meehan, a keen surfer, said.
Mr Meehan wants a cull on the north coast: “Many of us older surfers here believe the government needs to look at shark culling to decrease the number of great whites.”
Lennox-Ballina Boardriders Club president Don Munro is also angry the shark nets are being hauled in early. The state government will start removing the nets from Lighthouse, Sharpes, Shelly, Seven Mile and Evans Head beaches today — two weeks before a planned six-month trial was due to end after “an increase in whale sightings along the NSW coastline”.
They were installed in December following a horrific spate of 11 attacks off the north coast since 2015, including one fatality.
Ten new “smart” drumlins, designed to catch sharks, will be deployed instead. “While we are ending the trial slightly earlier, we now have almost six months’ worth of data for our shark scientists to analyse,” Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said.
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A decision on whether to install nets full-time on the north coast will be made in early spring, but it is understood the government is minded to put some in the area and may consider installing some on the south coast.
The north coast trial has been overwhelmingly successful, with no shark attacks reported since they were installed. There has been just one fatal attack on netted beaches between Wollongong and Newcastle since 1937. Despite this, the Greens decry the nets because they catch other marine life.
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