NSW urged to remove 51 shark nets after hundreds of dolphins and turtles caught last summer

Experts, marine conservation groups and an MP are urging the New South Wales government to ban anti-shark nets, which kill large numbers of turtles and dolphins, after 51 nets were installed along the state’s coastline.

Last summer more than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets were not sharks , while more than half of the 208 non-target species caught – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – were killed, data showed.

An Australian Marine Conservation Society shark scientist, Leonardo Guida, said the nets, which are installed from Newcastle to Wollongong, were “redundant” because there were more effective and less lethal options available for keeping sharks away from swimmers and surfers.

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“The government literally has solutions in their hands – technologies such as drone surveillance, personal shark deterrents and their leading SharkSmart education program are improving safety without harming marine life,” he said.

The Animal justice party MP Emma Hurst said hundreds of sharks, dolphins, stingrays and turtles became entangled in the nets every year, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and creating a false sense of security for beachgoers.

Related: ‘Where do sharks hang out?’: the race to find safe spaces for the Galápagos’ ocean-going predators

“We know they don’t work,” she said. “We know that sharks can swim under them or around them.”

The shark nets were installed at beaches under the state’s management program and will remain in place until 31 March. The NSW government had already brought the end date forward by a month in response to concerns about turtle activity in April.

Announcing the government’s shark management approach on 31 July, the state agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said: “The NSW government’s priority is the safety of beachgoers, at the same time we are committed to protecting our state’s marine life.”

In addition to the shark nets, the $21.5m management program included smart drum lines, drone surveillance and community education.

Prof Robert Harcourt, a marine ecologist at Macquarie University and the Sydney Institute for Marine Science, said NSW had already mastered a system involving “smart drum lines” where the animals were caught, tagged and released, with the data made publicly available via an app.

The smart drum line system combined with surf life-savers using drones to spot sharks made for a “very comprehensive, effective shark protection system, which doesn’t involve killing anything”, Harcourt said.

More than 1,000 white sharks had been tagged in NSW, he added, making them the best tagged population anywhere in the world.

He said the situation was a “wicked problem” for governments responsible for protecting people and threatened species. “I think you could certainly reduce the shark nets without much risk to the politicians of being blamed for endangering swimmers at the beach,” Harcourt said.

Dr Brianna Le Busque researches attitudes towards sharks at the University of South Australia.

She has found the majority of surfers were not afraid of sharks and did not want measures that affected the marine animals.

• This article was amended on 3 September 2023. An earlier version was published with a photo of a fishing net instead of a shark net.