Baited shark drumlines back to help protect swimmers on northern beaches
Another three-month trial of baited drumlines designed to help protect swimmers from potentially dangerous sharks is set to start on the northern beaches - but a marine conservationist has lashed out at the program.
Manly
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Another trial of baited drumlines designed to help protect swimmers from potentially dangerous sharks starts on the northern beaches this Friday.
A total of 20 buoys will be set each day about 500m from the shoreline during the new three-month trial that ends on December 1.
Ten of the SMART (Shark Management Alert in Real Time) drumlines, designed to intercept white, bull and tiger sharks, will be placed each day off beaches between Manly and Dee Why. They are not left out overnight.
Another 10 will try to hook so-called “target species” between Barrenjoey Headland and Newport. The drumlines are set near existing shark nets.
When a shark or marine animal is hooked, Department of Primary Industries (DPI) scientists or contractors are alerted via phone message. They then place an electronic tag on the shark that allows its movements to be tracked by a network of 21 listening stations along the NSW coast.
After being tagged, the sharks are released 1km offshore.
If a tagged sharks comes close to a listening post swimmers are alerted via the Sharksmart App.
During the first three-month drumline trial on the northern beaches, which ended on May 12, a total of 14 sharks were hooked on the drumlines, but only one was a target species.
On April 11 a 2.5m tiger shark was tagged and released from the drumline off Dee Why Beach at 2.09pm.
One of the non-target sharks caught, a 2.4m smooth hammerhead, died on a drumline off Whale Beach on March 15
All other sharks, including bronze and dusky whalers, were released alive off at Manly, Dee Why, North Curl Curl, Newport and Avalon beaches.
A DPI spokesman said that the drumline trial was not designed to find a replacement for nets, but to assess whether it would be useful in complementing the nets to further reduce the risk to beachgoers.
He said DPI wanted to collect more data on the effectiveness of this technology compared to catches in shark nets.
“Historical data from the Shark Meshing Program (SMP) indicates that white sharks are caught more frequently in the Newcastle-Wollongong region over spring, from September to November, each year than over summer and autumn.
“This may partly explain the small number of animals caught in both the SMP and SMART drumline trials earlier this year.”
Critics of the drumlines say they kill harmless sharks and other species such as loggerhead turtles and black marlin.
Marine conservationist from Eco Divers in Manly, Dave Thomas, said the government’s intervention was unnecessary.
“They are chasing a mythical monster out there,” he said.
“Random animals are being killed because there is a possibility that maybe someone might get bitten at some time. It’s not right.”