Third WA shark demise this yr more likely to put highlight on mitigation measures

The demise of a male swimmer at a Perth seashore yesterday was the twenty fourth deadly shark assault in Western Australia in 26 years and the third this yr.

The 63-year-old’s demise is more likely to revive the often-heated debate about how you can preserve beachgoers protected within the state, with some individuals advocating catch-and-kill insurance policies whereas others push for extra shark nets.

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It has been a decade since there have been this many shark assault deaths within the Perth metro space.

Scientists say hotter oceans are affecting the migratory patterns of sharks, which can be contributing to an increase in assaults.

With a hotter-than-average summer time forecast, the most recent assault is more likely to once more thrust the state’s shark mitigation insurance policies into the highlight.

What occurred?

The man who died was swimming with a pal on Friday morning at Sorrento Beach in Perth’s northern suburbs, in response to witnesses. 

They later reported seeing a traumatised man emerge from the water with out his companion.

Witness Jacqui Rapaic described seeing blood within the water close to the shoreline and a shark close by.

“My friend said, ‘Jacq, I think there’s been a shark attack’, and I looked out to the ocean, and I could see a pool of blood,” she mentioned.

The man’s physique has not but been positioned, with emergency providers persevering with their intensive search of the realm on Saturday morning. 

On Friday afternoon, police confirmed the swimmer “died as a result of the attack”.

The sufferer has but to be named and seashores within the space stay closed.

Latest in sequence of shark assaults

Friday’s fatality comes days after 56-year-old firefighter Mel Ismail was injured in a shark assault at a Geraldton seashore, about 400 kilometres north.

Earlier this yr Steven Mattaboni died after a shark assault off Rottnest Island and one other spearfisher, Daniel Turpin, was killed close to Albany just a few weeks later.

In 2023, 16-year-old Stella Berry turned the primary particular person to be killed by a shark in Perth’s Swan River in additional than a century.

The teenager was attacked whereas swimming within the river close to the Fremantle Traffic Bridge, prompting the state authorities to broaden its shark tagging program.

The final time three individuals died in shark assaults in WA in a single yr was 2020, when two individuals had been killed off Esperance, and one other particular person off Cable Beach in Broome.

It has additionally been 10 years since there have been as many shark assault deaths in Perth.

In 2016, two individuals had been killed inside every week of one another: surfer Ben Gerring died in hospital after shedding his leg in Mandurah, and nursing lecturer Doreen Collyer was killed by a suspected 5-metre shark off Mindarie.

What mitigation strategies are in place?

In conjunction with acoustic receivers, sharks are tagged in WA to trace their actions and alert the general public.

In latest years, nets have been launched at a number of seashores in Perth and the areas, together with Cottesloe, Coogee, Busselton, Albany, Esperance and Dunsborough.

But no less than one in every of these boundaries was completely eliminated in 2020 — the one at Sorrento Beach the place the swimmer was attacked on Friday.

Weekend surf lifesaving patrols, together with from the air, resumed final week at Perth seashores, however these is not going to turn out to be day by day till September 26.

Other methods embrace an app for shark notifications, warning sirens, and private deterrents.

As shark assaults enhance, some have referred to as for defense protocols together with selective culls and the reintroduction of catch-and-release drum strains to be thought-about.

New South Wales and Queensland use drum strains as a part of their shark mitigation methods.

In 2014, then-premier Colin Barnett launched a controversial trial of baited drum strains, which resulted in 68 sharks being caught after which shot. None of them had been nice whites.

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The 13-week trial prompted stiff opposition from the group and marine scientists.

The Environmental Protection Agency advisable abolishing the technique due to “uncertainty” about its impacts on the shark inhabitants.

The coverage has not been revisited since.

Premier Roger Cook has rejected calls to convey again culls and drum strains, with Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis lately saying WA has “one of the most comprehensive shark hazard mitigation strategies in the country”.