{"id":674161,"date":"2026-05-16T06:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674161\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:17:15","slug":"tiger-shark-beheading-in-albany-prompts-call-for-greater-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674161\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger shark beheading in Albany prompts call for greater regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts and fishers are calling for greater regulations after footage emerged of a shark being beheaded on Western Australia’s south coast.<\/p>\n

Warning: This article contains images of animal mutilation that may disturb some readers.<\/p>\n

The video, published on social media, shows fishers catching and decapitating a 4-metre tiger shark at an Albany boat ramp.<\/p>\n

Several sharks were seen in the area after a whale carcass was spotted off Goode Beach last week.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The fishers did not break the law, but their actions have been criticised. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Albany recreational fisher Anthony Wise told ABC radio the act was irresponsible.<\/p>\n

“When you have a whale carcass and some big fish hanging around there, I don’t think you should be able to fish for them,” he said.<\/p>\n

The ABC contacted the fishermen in the video. They declined to comment on their catch.<\/p>\n

A Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) spokesperson said the men had not breached any laws.<\/p>\n

UWA researcher Mark Meekan referred to the act as “trophy hunting” and criticised the actions of the fishermen.<\/p>\n

“Why are you catching them in the first place?” Dr Meekan said.<\/p>\n

“These are apex predators. They are not very abundant and are very important in the ecosystem, and you can’t eat the damn things.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mark Meekan has criticised the actions of the local fishers. (Supplied: Mark Meekan)<\/p>\n

Following reports of the whale carcass, DPIRD issued a warning to swimmers but said people were still permitted to fish in the area.<\/p>\n

A department spokesperson said tiger sharks were not subject to size limits under the state’s recreational fishing rules.<\/p>\n

They said no more than three large pelagic finfish could be caught in the space of 24 hours and that some fishing methods were banned in highly populated areas.<\/p>\n

That ban stretches from Two Rocks near Yanchep to Mandurah and parts of Busselton and Esperance, but not Albany.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/p>\n

Tiger sharks are an important part of the ecosystem, Dr Meekan says. (iNaturalist: Graham McMartin<\/a>, Tiger shark<\/a>, CC BY-NC 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Call for size limits<\/p>\n

Dr Meekan said tiger sharks played an important role in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

“Things like dugongs and turtles modify their behaviour to avoid places where tiger sharks are common,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This has flow-through effects, as it means seagrass can grow, because it’s not being eaten by these animals.<\/p>\n

“Seagrass sequesters carbon, so when we lose that, we lose a lot of those interconnections within the environment.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A 3.5m tiger shark caught in a drum line at Newport in Sydney’s north in 2019. (Supplied: NSW Department of Primary Industries)<\/p>\n

Dr Meekan said size limits for tiger shark fishing should be introduced to bring them into line with other fisheries.<\/p>\n

“The biggest of these sharks are the most reproductive and have the most young, so they do most of the breeding,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts and fishers are calling for greater regulations after footage emerged of a shark being beheaded on Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,325185,18708,325187,325186,142789,128,325183,110157,325184],"class_list":["post-674161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-can-you-catch-sharks-in-wa","tag-dpird","tag-goode-beach","tag-mark-meekan","tag-recreational-fishing","tag-science","tag-shark-beheaded-albany","tag-tiger-sharks","tag-wa-shark-fishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674161","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=674161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}