![\"Hundreds](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c1_5885403.jpg\")
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Hundreds of satellite-linked buoys lie off the eastern coast of Australia to catch sharks. (Photo: AFP) <\/p>\n
SYDNEY – Sensible people might prefer to flee at torpedo speed from a great white shark, but there\u2019s one job in Australia that pays you to race towards the predators.<\/p>\n
And when you reach the big fish, you have to fix a tracker to its dorsal fin while bobbing in a boat on the ocean swell.<\/p>\n
The job is key to a sophisticated protection network that lets swimmers, surfers and fishers check for the aquatic hunters in real time when they venture into the water.<\/p>\n
Every day, workers lay 305 satellite-linked buoys at popular spots in waters up to 15 metres deep along the coastline of New South Wales as part of the state-run programme.<\/p>\n
The so-called smart drumlines have baited hooks and when a shark takes a bite it is caught, sending a signal to the tagging team.<\/p>\n
Then comes the hard part.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not the wild \u201crodeo\u201d people might think, said Paul Butcher, principal research scientist for the state government shark tagging and tracking programme for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sharks are really benign. The process has little impact on those sharks,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
A boat races to the buoy within 16 minutes of the alert.<\/p>\n
If the fish is one of three potentially dangerous species \u2014 a great white, bull shark or tiger shark \u2014 team members get to work.<\/p>\n
They wrap two ropes around the animal: one near its tail and another in front of the pectoral fin to support its body.<\/p>\n
Trance-like state<\/p>\n
Once the carnivore has been pulled close to the side of the boat, it is rolled to one side carefully while ensuring seawater is passing through its gills.<\/p>\n
The position places the shark naturally into a trance-like state that minimises the risk of harm to the team and the animal.<\/p>\n
Workers measure the shark\u2019s length, collect tissue samples, and fit an acoustic tag to its dorsal fin.<\/p>\n
Finally, the animal is released at least one kilometre offshore, vanishing into the blue with a flick of its tail.<\/p>\n
The whole process takes about 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get some animals that have their own personalities,\u201d Butcher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat whites, when we catch them, they\u2019re easy to work on next to the boat. Tiger sharks, not so much. And bull sharks are really benign as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past 10 years, the state\u2019s programme \u2014 managed by the Department of Primary Industries \u2014 has tagged 1,547 white sharks, 756 tiger sharks and 240 bull sharks.<\/p>\n
Tagged sharks are detected when they swim past one of 37 listening stations dotted along the coastline.<\/p>\n
That sets off an alarm on the SharkSmart app, giving beachgoers an instant notification on their mobiles and smart watches.<\/p>\n
The technology forms part of a multi-layered approach that authorities have adopted, alongside spotter drones and old-fashioned nets.<\/p>\n
Fatal attacks on the rise<\/p>\n
More than 1,280 shark incidents have been recorded around Australia since 1791 \u2014 about 260 of them fatal \u2014 according to a national database.<\/p>\n
Though still relatively rare, fatal attacks are on the rise with 57 reported deaths in the 25 years to 2025, compared to 27 in the previous quarter-century.<\/p>\n
In November, a three-metre bull shark fatally bit one woman and injured her boyfriend off a remote beach north of Sydney.<\/p>\n
The Swiss tourists were reportedly filming a pod of dolphins.<\/p>\n
Despite overfishing depleting some shark species, scientists say the rise in fatalities may be linked to the growing numbers of people taking to the water.<\/p>\n
Rising ocean temperatures also appear to be swaying sharks\u2019 migratory patterns.<\/p>\n
Researchers say shark lives, too, need protecting.<\/p>\n
Globally, about 37% of oceanic shark and ray species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a database for threatened species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of satellite-linked buoys lie off the eastern coast of Australia to catch sharks. (Photo: AFP) SYDNEY –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-179538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}