New Terrigal-based community group Friends of Kurrawyba has launched a petition calling for the NSW Government to permanently remove shark meshing from NSW beaches from the end of April in this year.
The group will hold a gathering at Terrigal on Sunday, April 28, to raise public awareness.
“We need to stop pretending that these ‘bather protection nets’ or ‘shark nets’ protect swimmers, when what they really do is injure and kill endangered and protected species,” spokesperson Izabela Sajdok said.
Sajdok, who is a local artist, will be on Terrigal Beach from 8am on Sunday morning to create a painting showing the damage that shark nets inflict upon rays, turtles, dolphins, and protected sharks, including the grey nurse.
“If you love the ocean and its creatures, you will know that these nets, that are supposed to protect swimmers from sharks, give nothing but a false sense of security,” she said.
“To use the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ own words: ‘The nets do not stretch from one end of a beach to the other. They are not designed to create a total barrier between bathers and sharks’.
“In other words, sharks can swim under, over and around these nets.”
Sajdok said the nets were removed from 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong at the end of April each year.
“Friends of Kurrawyba want the community to join our campaign to make this the last time the nets are removed and that they never go back in our waters,” she said.
“Our petition is live on the NSW Legislative Assembly website and we have until July 4 to gather as many signatures as possible so this issue can be debated in the Legislative Council.
“Our petition has the support of Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann and we are hoping that swimmers, divers, fishers and all who love our beaches and ocean will support our cause.
“It is not well known that the shark meshing program is listed as a key threatening process in the NSW Fisheries Management Act 1994 and the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.
“For example, for the 2022-23 season (the most recent available), only 24 ‘target’ sharks were caught by the nets but another 204 ‘non-target interactions’ occurred, with 51 individuals of this total representing species that are threatened – white sharks, grey nurse sharks, leatherback turtles, loggerhead turtles, green turtles, seals and a great hammerhead shark.
“Protected species including Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and common dolphins were also victims or ‘bycatch’ of the program for 2022-23.
“This type of bycatch is a common, long-running impact of the meshing program.
“Shark mesh does much more killing than protecting.
“There are many other ways the NSW Government could spend money to protect swimmers without such unsustainable levels of bycatch.”
The Friends of Kurrawyba will be at Terrigal Beach (near the surf club) from 8am to noon on Sunday, April 28, to gather signatures for the petition.
There will also be information sheets about the shark meshing program, colouring-in activities for the kids and an opportunity for a casual swim.
Sign the petition at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/pages/epetitiondetails.aspx?q=hbWpuim6mzZROYQDivvobg
For more information, go to https://www.friendsofkurrawyba.com/
Friends of Kurrawyba is supported by the Community Environment Network (CEN) and the Central Coast Marine Discovery Centre.