Shark nets to be removed from Aussie beaches to protect whales despite attacks

Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-29 10:17:16|Editor: Yurou Liang
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SYDNEY, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The state government of New South Wales (NSW) announced Monday that it will be removing the shark nets from popular tourist beaches along Australia's east coast, in a bid to save whales and other sea animals from being caught unintentionally.

The nets were placed under the North Coast Shark Net Trial, and have been in place for six months at Shelly Beach, Seven Mile Beach, among others, and the NSW Minister for Primary Industry Niall Blair told Xinhua Monday that the program will be ended two weeks early due to increased whale sightings.

"While we are ending the trial slightly earlier, we now have almost six months' worth of data for our shark scientists to analyse," Blair said.

Instead of the nets, the government will utilise drumlines, which are aquatic traps with a baited hook to catch large sea animals like sharks, which Blair said have been successful in the trails they have conducted.

"Over the past five months, drumlines have caught 29 target sharks, with all but one being tagged and released alive - that compares to only six target sharks caught in the nets," Blair said.

This coincided with events over the weekend on the NSW North Coast that saw a great white shark jump into a man's boat as he sailed at Evans Head, south of Brisbane, late on Saturday.

The 73-year-old man, Terry Selwood, was fishing in his boat at the time, and told local media that the shark came completely surprising him, coming out of nowhere in the brazen attack.

"I caught a blur of something coming over the boat - and the pectoral fin of the shark hit me on the forearm and knocked me down on the ground to my hands and knees," Selwood said.

"He just bounced around in there and he struck my arm a couple of time and I thought he'd broke my arm to be honest, but it has just torn the skin off it," he added.

"I was losing a fair amount of blood, I was stunned, I couldn't register what had happened and then I thought, oh my God, I have to get out of here."

Selwood was subsequently saved by local marine rescue volunteers and taken to a local hospital for treatment of his wounds.

This weekend's attack is one of many to befall the region, and the president of the Byron Bay boardriders club which is in the affected area, Neil Cameron, said that the decision will put surfers and swimmers' lives at risk.

"A tag is not going to stop a great white from killing anyone, it doesn't make sense," Cameron said.

"It's a really tough one. Being surfers, you don't want to see any turtles or stingrays being victims of bycatch. But at the same time you don't want to see people's lives being ruined or ended."

According to figures released by the NSW Department of Primary Industries, the shark nets had a 4.3 success rate in the first two months of the trial, with five of the 153 sea creatures that were caught being sharks.

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