{"id":132173,"date":"2025-09-10T06:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/132173\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T06:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:49:07","slug":"turtles-dolphins-rays-die-as-shark-nets-miss-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/132173\/","title":{"rendered":"Turtles, dolphins, rays die as shark nets miss target"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NSW government has released its annual report<\/a> detailing the number of animals and species entangled by its shark nets, days after a surfer was fatally mauled at a beach.<\/p>\n

There are 51 nets installed on the state’s beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong under the program, each stretching 150 metres and sitting metres below the surface.<\/p>\n

The nets are installed at the start of September and remain until after summer.<\/p>\n

The government has begun pulling the nets a month earlier, at the end of March, due to increased turtle activity in April.<\/p>\n

Of the 13 turtles ensnared in the nets seven died. Green turtles were the main species captured in the 2024\/25 reporting period.<\/p>\n

The program also trialled LED lights on 21 nets to deter turtles, and the number captured was less than half that of the previous period.<\/p>\n

Of the 223 marine species captured by the nets, only 24 were targeted sharks, with the remaining 199 non-target animals accounting for just under 90 per cent of those caught.<\/p>\n

Just a third of those captured, 74 animals, were released alive.<\/p>\n

The data’s release came after Mercury Psillakis, 57, was fatally mauled at Long Reef Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He had been alerting other surfers to the large shark before he was attacked.<\/p>\n

Long Reef is not netted, but nearby Dee Why Beach is.<\/p>\n

The first recorded fatal shark attack on the northern beaches in nine decades prompted Premier Chris Minns to scrap a trial to remove nets at three yet-to-be-determined beaches.<\/p>\n

“That would be a silly decision to make in light of this tragedy,” Mr Minns said.<\/p>\n

The 24 target sharks captured included 18 white sharks, four bull sharks and two tiger sharks.<\/p>\n

Another 117 non-target sharks were caught, with only one of 48 captured smooth hammerhead sharks released alive, while the nets caught 16 bronze whaler sharks and 12 dusky whaler sharks.<\/p>\n

Fifty-six rays were entangled, 16 of them dying.<\/p>\n

Four dolphins, all threatened or protected species, died after being caught in the nets.<\/p>\n

The government report is dated from July, but was not publicly released until after the nets had been re-installed for the coming summer, and following the death of Mr Psillakis.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty was questioned about alleged delays in its release at a budget estimates hearing earlier in September.<\/p>\n

Queensland is the only other state with shark nets as part of its management program, with more than two dozen used between the Gold Coast and Mackay.<\/p>\n

Western Australia uses rigid “eco barriers” rather than nets.<\/p>\n

All three states are investigating and using alternative methods as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW government has released its annual report detailing the number of animals and species entangled by its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-132173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}