Saturday’s shark tragedy at Dee Why Beach was horrific. Our hearts go out to the Psillakis family, friends and first responders. We cannot imagine the trauma they are experiencing and we wish them strength in their sorrow.
Surfer Mercury Psillakis lost his life after being bitten by a shark on Saturday near Dee Why.Credit: AP
Humane World for Animals’ priority is – and always has been – public safety. Saturday’s tragedy is a terrible reminder of the impact that a shark bite can have on an individual, a family and a community – the reverberations of which will be felt for a very long time.
It was also a reminder that our efforts to reduce the risk of such tragedies must be based on the latest scientific evidence, not an antiquated perception of what might work.
The NSW government is a world leader in implementing new technologies to reduce the risk of shark bite. Drone surveillance, listening stations, shark tagging, tracking and education programs have all been rolled out statewide over the past decade. There is a sound, evidential basis for these measures as a means to reduce the risk of shark bite.
What’s holding us back from being best practice in preventing such incidents is our continued use of shark nets.
Shark nets are not the enclosure nets in Sydney Harbour that readers might know and love at Forty Baskets or Northbridge. Shark nets are gill nets positioned 500m off ocean beaches from Newcastle, down across the Central Coast and Sydney, to Wollongong. At only 150 metres in length and installed on beaches that are often multiple kilometres long, they are not barriers. They are indiscriminate snares designed to entangle and drown wildlife.
There is no evidence that shark nets reduce the risk of shark bite, as the NSW government’s own scientists have repeatedly told them.
In fact, there is strong evidence the carcasses of sharks, rays and turtles pulled out of nets with large shark bites suggest that dead and dying wildlife attracts sharks closer to beaches.
A dolphin caught in the shark net off Bondi Beach.Credit: Jason Iggleden