The Community Environment Network (CEN) is urging the NSW Government not to award any tenders for the 2023/2024 shark meshing program in NSW waters and to discontinue the “archaic and ineffective” program.
“Shark meshing injures and kills more threatened and endangered species than it does the three types of sharks it is supposed to keep away from swimmers,” CEN Chair Gary Chestnut said.
“And that fact comes from data gathered by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries).
“The substantial and unjustifiable amount of bycatch killed or injured over many years means the shark meshing program is itself listed as a key threatening process in both the NSW Fisheries Management Act 1994 and the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.
“How can the NSW Government continue the shark meshing program when it is known to be a threat to biodiversity and sustainability?”
Chestnut said the protection offered by the meshing is far from shark proof and CEN was shocked by the NSW DPI’s call for tenders for shark meshing for the 2023-24 season on the Central Coast and in the six other LGAs from Newcastle to Wollongong.
“This call for tenders, which closed on July 24, occurred despite strong community opposition to shark meshing in the winter of 2022 and the extensive and ongoing rollout of other shark mitigation strategies,” he said.
“We have written to the Minister for Agriculture (Fisheries) Tara Moriarty, along with all NSW parliamentarians who represent the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie, to urge them to stop the shark meshing program.”
Chestnut said in the most recent reporting period (2021-22) the program captured only 28 White Sharks representing 7.4 per cent of total catches.
The White Shark is now listed as vulnerable/endangered.
Almost twice that number (42) of non-target species were caught in the same period, including 19 Green Turtles, 16 Leatherback Turtles, 6 Grey Nurse Sharks and 1 Loggerhead Turtle, all of which are endangered/vulnerable.
“We have urged Minister Moriarty to consider the availability of new methods to protect beachgoers, which trap and kill substantially less bycatch than the now outdated and ecologically dangerous shark meshing,” Chestnut said.
“CEN would like to think the call for tenders was nothing more than a system glitch and that the NSW Government will immediately discontinue the shark meshing program on NSW beaches.”
The shark meshing program has been used in NSW since 1937 and was designed at that time to protect beachgoers from predatory sharks including White, Tiger and Bull sharks during peak swimming season.
In its present form, external contractors set large-mesh nets at the beginning of the season and check nets every three days for entangled animals, including the three target sharks but also significant amounts of bycatch.
Entangled animals are often deceased, and their carcasses are dumped offshore.
When tenders were called last month, Minister for the Central Coast David Harris said no decision had yet been made by the Government on the use of shark meshing in the coming year.
Source:
Community Environment Network