Taming the sharks

Sunday 10 March 2013 8:05AM (view full episode)

In Western Australia, where there’s been a spate of fatal attacks, sharks are being tagged and tracked and the government has called for them to be killed if they come too close to shore. But scientists say they may stop tagging animals if the devices are used to destroy rather than study the animals. James Woodford investigates. (A complete transcript of this show is now available at the link above)


The first shark has been killed under the WA catch and kill policy. Activists have been warned of jail time if they interfere in the implementation of the policy. ABC News Online 28th January 2014

The hunt is on for the shark that killed surfer Chris Boyd off Gracetown in WA. 25th November 2013

After five fatal attacks by Great White sharks in a ten month period across 2011-2012, the Western Australian government has been forced to act. $20 million has been announced for shark mitigation strategies, and Premier Colin Barnett has also said that large sharks cruising close to swimming areas could be destroyed.

Receiver buoys that allow tagged sharks to be tracked are currently placed around some of Perth’s most popular beaches, and the plan is to expand the number of receiversbut the scientists are uneasy about the way the program may be used

Rory McAuley is the senior shark scientist for the WA Department of Fisheries, and says while the tracking program is currently used only to protect swimmers at Perth beaches, it is already being expanded to other parts of the state.

'We use a new generation of acoustic receiver technology that has a satellite link to the receiver and therefore allows us to know about the movements of tagged sharks, at least when they occur close to popular beaches,' he says. 'At the moment that program only operates in the Perth region but we are in the process of expanding that around the South West as well. So that's been a very valuable program... being able to alert local authorities like surf life saving, local government rangers and water police so that they can implement pre-emptive measures such as beach closures.'

Mr McAuley says the shark tracking information is only supposed to be used for scientific and public safety purposes, but he acknowledges it could be used to catch and kill sharks. Invariably after a shark attack, or when a big shark comes close to a beach, there are people who say the shark should be destroyed. Mr McAuley is worried about perverse outcomes from his research projectparticularly the likelihood that tagged sharks would be easier to track and kill.

Listen to Background Briefing on Radio National at 8.05am on Sunday or 2.05pm on Tuesday.

'The information we collect in real time on shark occurrences off beaches are only provided to authorities,' he says. 'The real-time information is intended for pre-emptive safety responsesnot for targeting those sharks for retribution or elimination. But there is a risk that by highlighting these shark hazards when they present themselves that people will use that as an opportunity to catch those sharks and remove them.'

The whole issue of killing sharks that pose a threat is a very uncomfortable one for researchers and shark managers. Although there is an argument that says that sharks that have attacked humans may need to be destroyed because they could remain in proximity to beaches and strike again, the ethics of using scientific research to carry out hunt and kill policies is fraught with complexity, Mr McAuley says.

'There's a real risk that if the real-time nature of the tag detection was used to catch and kill sharks that that would not be viewed well by other researchers,' Mr McAuley says. 'The concept of the white shark targeting and monitoring is that it is very collaborative in nature, we rely on knowing details of tags that have been released by other agencies both within Australia and internationally to give us the best coverage possible for when sharks occur close to Perth beaches. So I do have some concerns about that tag information being used for purposes other than they were intended for which is to provide information about the movement and behaviour of the species and provide timely alerts for pre-emptive safety responses.'

YouTube: Acoustic tagging used to detect white sharks

One of the most experienced shark taggers is Rachel Robbins, a white shark researcher with the Rodney Fox Foundation. Many of the sharks she has tagged in South Australian waters will migrate to the waters off Perth and the South West. Ms Robbins says while the ability to track these white sharks and provide warnings is helpful, it can also lead to a dangerous false sense of security.

'It's been suggested they put all the receivers at all the beaches and if a tagged shark is detected  there'll be a beacon on the beach that tells people when the last detection of a shark was,' she says. 'Now the problem is that could lead people into a really false sense of security and we're only going to be able to tag a very small proportion of the white shark population at any one time so there are many issues around any kind of research and any kind of tagging technology.'

Ms Robbins is especially concerned about the possibility that tags could be used to enable the catching and killing of sharks.

'If that were to happen the likelihood is we would stop tagging,' she says. 'If it was going to occur that we were enabling people to hunt those sharks more easily then we would have to consider stopping that kind of tagging completely in order to protect the sharks.'

The expansion of the tagging and warning system is likely to see more beaches closed more often, and beachgoers don’t like it when their favourite beaches are closed. Chris Peck, the community safety manager with Surf Life Saving WA, says that what was formerly a public safety issue is 'morphing' into a public amenity issue.

'People are starting to get a little agitated and edgy that there a number of beach closures, more than we've probably seen over the last ten years in terms of their frequency, which means people are having to stay out of the water for longer periods,' he says. 'And we have seen beach closures for as long as a day because a particular shark is hanging around in an area. People are saying, "It's having an impact on my recreational life," versus, "I understand there's a public safety element to it."'

The full broadcast of James Woodford's investigation into shark research in Australia will be on Background Briefing, Sunday 10 March at 8am. Audio will be available for stream and download at the top of this page after broadcast.

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Kim Allen: On June 20th we went for our normal morning paddle from Mullaloo beach, a group of five chaps, normally leaving around about seven in the morning ensuring that it was daylight. We left Mullaloo beach, it was a slightly cloudy and overcast day, paddled towards Hillarys, south of Mullaloo, 150 metres offshore. We happened to see a rainbow on the horizon and all shared the moment and said what a great place to be and what a fantastic experience.

Probably a kilometre south of the surf club we came across a group of dolphins, which we often do, and dolphins tend to swim around and we just watch them feed and so forth. This particular morning the group were almost bonded side by side, there were between four or five dolphins acting in a different way. We all stopped and looked at that. Martin Kane continued to paddle, and shortly after that there was an eruption, there was turbulence in the water, there was a shout and a scream from Martin. We just didn't really know what had happened but we could guess.

James Woodford: Kim Allen recounts the moment when his friend Martin Kane's surf ski was hit by a great white shark.

Being attacked by a shark is a primal fear, and for a nation obsessed with the beach it is an inconvenient truth that the ocean is a dangerous place we cannot control.

Journalist: We begin with the moment a Perth father of five came face to face with a three-metre great white monster. Martin Kane's surf ski was attacked as he paddled off Mullaloo beach.

Martin Kane: Next thing you know I'm in the water, and as I came round the back of my ski I could see the shark, a very, very large grey shape. At that moment I thought I was a goner, I'm dead.

James Woodford: Kim Allen and the others had to get Martin out of the water.

Kim Allen: My colleague Dale Gration was very close to him and was able to pull him onto the back of his ski very quickly. The other three of us managed to come alongside very quickly and chaperone Dale and Martin into the beach. Probably all up it was a couple of minutes I would think.

James Woodford: Did you actually get to see the shark after that initial eruption and turbulence?

Kim Allen: For most of the time that we were paddling towards Martin the ski was just being thrashed around in the water, and we believe that possibly the cables from the rudder were entangled in the jaws of the shark and probably that was keeping it occupied. When we'd managed to reach the shore and looked back, we saw the broken ski and we just saw the fin circling the broken ski, so that was the next time that we saw it.

James Woodford: It was early morning. The great white shark that attacked Martin Kane's ski came in undetected by aerial patrols or the vigilance of lifesavers. This was one of several recent shark attacks in Western Australia, five of them fatal, forcing authorities to scramble for solutions.

I'm James Woodford, and you're listening to Background Briefing.

Researchers are now looking at a new generation of tools to detect sharks, as old-fashioned methods like spotter aircraft are being shown to be ineffective. Flying planes and helicopters up and down busy beaches has provided comfort to swimmers for decades, but scientists who have tested the method say aerial patrols do not work.

Vic Peddemors: In a nutshell what we did was we looked at two components. The first was how deep did a shark have to be before it became invisible to someone looking out of the window of an aircraft, whether it be a helicopter or a fixed-wing. And then also how far away from the aircraft would a shark have to be before it was missed.

James Woodford: Vic Peddemors runs the New South Wales Shark Management Program for the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. He led a research project that tries to answer whether it was really possible to spot sharks from aircraft. The project simulated shark aerial patrol operations and deployed plywood cut-out sharks close to the surface and in clear water.

Vic Peddemors: It's become apparent from those experiments that once a shark is deeper than about 2.5 metres underwater it becomes pretty much invisible to a person flying overhead, and additionally if the shark is more than 300 metres away it's highly unlikely to be seen. So it means that any aircraft flying overhead doing a so-called shark patrol actually has a very high chance of undercounting, missing sharks that are actually there.

James Woodford: Only 9% of the sharks were spotted when the distance exceeded 300 metres. Vic Peddemors doesn't think that can be improved upon.

Vic Peddemors: We haven't even calculated yet what percentage of the time does a shark spend within 2.5 meters of the surface, but it's likely to be a relatively short period of time in its daily activity budget. So, taking all those things into consideration, plus the fact that the aircraft is flying around about 100 knots, so it's a 180 kilometres per hour, and is over any beach for a very short period of time as a result, in my opinion aerial surveys are not very effective at shark spotting.

James Woodford: We're about to take off from Albion Park Airfield, about an hour and a half south of Sydney. The pilot says there have been quite a few schools of baitfish around lately. It's not the greatest conditions for flying, quite a bit of cloud and we've had a few showers of rain, a few puddles around on the airfield, but hopefully we might get to spot something out there, maybe even a shark.

The oldest shark aerial patrol in the country operates out of Albion Park Airfield on the New South Wales south coast. Those who manage aerial patrols are adamant they work.

Harry Mitchell: Harry Mitchell, general manager, Bendigo Bank Aerial Patrol based at Wollongong.

The aerial patrol was formed back in 1957 by the surf lifesaving movement and local government in this area, predominantly to carry out aerial surveillance looking for threats to swimmers and surfers along our public beaches, and they considered at that time that the main threat was shark activity

James Woodford: Harry Mitchell says his biggest criticism of the experiment run by Vic Peddemors and his colleagues is that the scientists used cut-out sharks that did not move.

Harry Mitchell: Our observers on board our aircraft are trained to see things at various depths as well, and also at distances. The human eye can do a lot more in terms of observation than other forms of detection from above. Now, in saying that, the human eye is also trained to see movement in the water, and you won't see movement with these stationary objects that were positioned by the scientists on these surveys that were conducted. But if we see a shark, regardless of the depth, whether it's at the surface like the hammerheads, regardless of the depth, if those sharks are showing some indication of movement (the bull shark is a frisky animal in the water), we're able to detect that fairly quickly and act accordingly. So I think that these stationary objects were really not the real deal, if I can put it that way. They were trying to extract statistical and scientific data rather than looking at what we could see from the air. In terms of managing beach safety, it was a whole different scenario.

James Woodford: Harry Mitchell says aerial patrols are not just about finding sharks but also searching for other signs the animals might be present.

Harry Mitchell: The main sign that your listeners would probably relate to are schools of baitfish. We frequently see schools of baitfish all along our coastline and some of those schools of baitfish are rather huge. For example, there could be a couple of hundred thousand little fish in that one big patch of school activity, so we'll monitor that as we are proceeding up and down the coastline at 500 feet. We have clear view of that type of baitfish activity and other schools of fish as well, and if we see a shift in that migration process of those schools we'll relay that information to the beach safety providers and say, look, this is the way it's been a couple of hours ago, we are now seeing a bit of a shift towards your beach, you seem to have a lot of swimmers at your beach, it's a heads-up that you can step up to the next level of surveillance on your part down there to keep your swimmers safe.

James Woodford: A fortnight ago Background Briefing joined an aerial patrol with volunteer shark spotter Duncan Leadbitter.

Duncan Leadbitter: I've been doing this for a year and the one that I saw off that break wall 60 metres from swimmers up at Lake Macquarie, to me any shark which is two metres or bigger is a potential hazard and this thing was a lot bigger than that.

James Woodford: He is a fisheries scientist and a keen spearfisherman who was attracted to becoming a spotter because of the comfort he took as a swimmer from the sight of the yellow plane flying overhead.

Duncan Leadbitter: It's kind of nice to know that somebody could call up a surf lifesaver and say, you know, there's a five-metre great white.

James Woodford: Every incident involving a shark and an encounter with a human is logged in detail with John West, the operations manager at Taronga Zoo and also the curator of the Australian Shark Attack File. The file goes back to 1791.

John West: There are two classes of attacks that we record. One is provoked and one is unprovoked. So overall, considering both provoked and unprovoked, we have currently 875 cases on the Australian Shark Attack File. But of the unprovoked attacks, that is ones where the humans haven't interfered with the sharks, we have 689 cases.

James Woodford: How many of those were fatalities?

John West: For the unprovoked cases, 201 over the last 228 years.

James Woodford: I've heard people say to me in the last few months that there is actually an increase in the number of shark attacks in Australia. Is that the case?

John West: There is an increase but the increase is directly related to the population increase and also the increasing use of the oceans for recreation by more and more people every year, and also the popularity of things like swimming, surfing, kayaking, scuba diving, and there's more and more people going into the water. So, the reality is that there has been a steady but small increase and it's directly related to population increase.

James Woodford: Even though the death rate from shark attacks pales into insignificance compared to drowning deaths, to the average Western Australian beachgoer the fact that five people died in just two years felt like anything but a small increase.

Rory McAuley: The trend in shark incidents or shark bites in Western Australia has been increasing fairly steadily and that's a trend consistent with most parts of the world

James Woodford: Rory McAuley is the senior shark scientist for the WA Department of Fisheries. The Western Australian government pledged around $20 million for shark mitigation and research because of the spate of attacks.

Rory McAuley: We had five fatal shark bites over here between September 2011 and July 2012, which is a much higher rate of fatal incidents than we've had previously. However, in terms of what are euphemistically called shark attacks, that's not unprecedented. We've had years in the past where we have had up to four attacks by great white sharks, and in 2004 we had ten shark attacks in total by white sharks and other species. But the notable part of the 2011/2012 period was the severity of those attacks, so five people were killed by white sharks, tragically, whereas in previous years not all of those incidents have resulted in fatalities.

James Woodford: Shark attack fears tend to cycle around the country, depending on where the latest attacks have taken place. In 2009 it was New South Wales, where there was a spike in attacks, including a high profile case of a navy clearance diver was severely injured by a bull shark in Sydney Harbour.

Sydney's beaches are home to a controversial meshing program that catches around 100 sharks each year, including around half a dozen great whites. This is an animal that is still little understood. Until recent years scientists knew virtually nothing of its life cycle, how long it lives, where it travels and the most basic facts about its behaviour.

Many who study sharks believe that the number one way to protect people from the predators is to actually understand them. For this reason, each great white shark caught in the New South Wales beach meshing program is treated as a research prize. The sharks are carefully dissected and samples are sent to scientists around the world.

A two-metre great white caught last year off the New South Wales south coast was another important specimen. CSIRO scientist Barry Bruce flew from Hobart to lead the dissection.

Barry Bruce: What we'll do is just open up the tummy and that will allow us access to the internal organs where we'll be pulling out the stomach and looking at stomach contents and taking out a section of vertebrae to help us age the shark, and taking some tissue samples that we can use for genetics and for a special chemical analysis that will give us a history of what this shark has fed on throughout it's relatively short life.

James Woodford: Do you ever get a surprise when you open up the stomach and something comes out?

Barry Bruce: It's always exciting to see what they've been eating. I've never had any particularly bad surprises. We've certainly found things ranging from beer bottle caps (Fosters), to dolphin remains, shark remains, ray remains, seal remains.

Now, guess, what will this be? I don't know, it could be the head of something? It's a fish head, I would say, it's a rather large fish head I think, I don't know. Let's have a look, let's get it out. I might have to cut it. Here we go, here's the head, it looks like a blue groper.

James Woodford: It turned out that the shark had eaten a half-metre blue grouper. Other than the soft flesh, most of it was intact inside the shark.

In recent years researchers have garnered a massive amount of data from tagging as many white sharks as possible.

Shark tagging crew member: We saw Kiwi today. Her tag got picked up off Albany at King George Sound, looks like she headed west for the summer and she has turned back to South Australia to spend the winter at the seal colonies here at the Neptune Islands again.

James Woodford: The program has a surprising spin-off that is having a big impact on Perth's beaches. Rory McAuley:

Rory McAuley: We also use a new generation of acoustic receiver technology that has a satellite link to the receiver and therefore allows us to know about tagged sharks at least when they occur close to popular beaches. At the moment that program only operates in the Perth region but we are in the process of expanding that around the south west as well. so that's been a very valuable program in definitively identifying known shark hazards and being able to alert local authorities such as surf life saving and water police and local government rangers so that they can implement pre-emptive safety responses such as beach closures and evacuating people from the water.

James Woodford: And is there any possibility that there could be a large enough percentage of the population of white sharks ultimately that may be tagged so that something like that is actually a really useful tool for beach safety?

Rory McAuley: In my estimation it already has been a very valuable tool. We've detected a number of sharks now off Perth beaches that have been fitted with acoustic transmitters. Obviously we haven't tagged every shark in the ocean, nor could we ever hope to tag every shark in the ocean, but if we can get to them when we know they're in close proximity to populated areas and get tags into them, which can be a fairly straightforward task, then we can at least monitor those sharks while they remain in the region. But the thing to remember about white sharks is that they are extremely mobile and they tend not to reside in particular areas for very long periods of time

James Woodford: And any incidents where you've actually gotten people out of the water because a shark's come close?

Rory McAuley: Absolutely. Last year was a very busy year for the project. We tagged four sharks over four days in October in the Perth region, and two of the sharks were detected multiple times by multiple receivers right up and down the metropolitan coast. On the back of those detections beaches were closed, people were removed from the water, but more importantly we were able to monitor the ongoing presence of sharks. So not only were beaches able to be closed on the back of those data but also re-opened after sufficient periods of no detections

James Woodford: Invariably after a shark attack or when a big shark comes close to a beach there are people in the public who say well, we should go and catch it and kill it. Is there a concern that you could end up where the sharks that are tagged are easier to catch?

Rory McAuley: There is. The information that we collect in real time on shark occurrences off beaches though are only provided to the authorities. So the real-time information is intended for pre-emptive safety responses, not for targeting those sharks for retribution or elimination. But there is a risk that by highlighting these shark hazards when they present themselves that people will use that as an opportunity to go and try and catch those sharks and remove them.

James Woodford: What's your view on that?

Rory McAuley: Look, that's a difficult area for me to get into. Some high level policy decisions have been made regarding imminent threat decisions for sharks that occur close to beaches, and those decisions have been made and my personal opinion doesn't really come into that.

James Woodford: The imminent threat policy means that if a large shark persistently stays near a Western Australian beach it can be caught and killed.

Background Briefing sought a comment on the policy from the Western Australian government. Neither Premier Colin Barnett nor any of his ministers would speak about it because his government was in caretaker mode leading up to the WA election. But speaking before Christmas, the Premier made it clear beach goers' safety came first.

Colin Barnett: Clearly something has changed, and therefore as a government we have a responsibility to ensure that people using our beaches and enjoying them are safe. Human life comes first.

James Woodford: And he was clear about how the policy would operate.

Colin Barnett: Maybe if large sharks, big whites or great whites come in too close to swimming areas, maybe we should destroy those and not take the risks.

James Woodford: The whole issue of killing sharks that are deemed to pose an imminent threat is a very uncomfortable one for researchers like Rory McAuley.

Is catching and killing sharks after an attack scientifically justified?

Rory McAuley: I'm not prepared to answer that I am afraid, James.

James Woodford: What are the scientific arguments for catching and killing sharks after an attack?

Rory McAuley: I guess the argument for catching a shark after an attack is that it's been in close proximity and may remain in close proximity to humans and therefore may represent a greater immediate threat to public safety than other sharks.

James Woodford: I guess there'd be some researchers who may pull back from such research if these tags are used as a tool to catch sharks rather than to study them.

Rory McAuley: Yes, absolutely, there's a real risk that if the real-time nature of the tag detections was used to catch and kill sharks, there's a real risk that that would not be viewed well by other researchers. And the concept of the white shark tagging and monitoring program is that it's very collaborative in nature, we rely on knowing details of tags that have been released by other agencies, both within Australia and also internationally, to give us the best coverage possible for when sharks are close to Perth beaches. So I do have some concerns about that tag information being used for purposes other than what they were intended for, which is to study the movements and behaviour of the species and provide timely alerts for pre-emptive safety responses.

James Woodford: Tagging sharks is not easy. The Neptune Islands off South Australia is one of the key locations where sharks gather and can be tagged. On an expedition last year, this was the moment a large great white was tagged. A video of the event is on the Background Briefing website.

[Shark tagging expedition audio]

One of the scientists on board that day was Rachel Robbins, who has spent so much time with great whites that she knows many by name. Many of these animals will end up off Western Australia's beaches and the fact that they are tagged means they can be tracked by Western Australian authorities. And for Rachel Robbins, the ability to track is double-edged.

Rachel Robbins: Certainly with the acoustic tagging technology there are separate issues involved. For instance, as part of the shark mitigation suggestions for WA, it's been suggested that they put these acoustic receivers at all the beaches, and if a tagged shark is detected there'll be a beacon on the beach that tells people when the last detection of a shark was. Now, the problem is that could lead people into a really false sense of security that, okay, there hasn't been a detection in two weeks, that must mean there's no sharks. However, you are only looking at tagged sharks, and we're only ever going to be able to tag a very small proportion of the white shark population at any one time. So in that way there are many issues around any kind of research I guess and any tagging technology, that there are going to be pros and cons to how much you inform the public or how much you let the information be public.

James Woodford: Rachel Robbins is very concerned about the possibility that tags could be used to enable the catching and killing of sharks.

Rachel Robbins: If that were to happen, the likelihood is that we would stop tagging. If it was going to occur that by tagging sharks this was enabling people to hunt those sharks more easily, then we would have to very strongly consider stopping that kind of tagging completely in order to protect the sharks.

James Woodford: While the tagging program has obvious benefits for beach managers, there are downsides. There are now more beach closures, and the tagging technology makes it appear there are more sharks out there.

Chris Peck is the community safety manager with Surf Lifesaving WA.

Chris Peck: It's helping us to know when those sort of sharks more likely to be involved in attacks are in the area and we can take action to remove people out of the water. The converse to that, James, though is that you will get regular pings of those acoustic listening devices, and the more they go off or if a particular shark is hanging around that device because there might be a ball of baitfish that they're feeding on and it keeps setting off that device, people can either start to become complacent, or the other extreme is that they become paranoid and frenzied that there are sharks populating the water.

And what we're seeing I think in the last few years since we've had some attacks and certainly since we've increased our surveillance programs is that people are reporting sharks all over the place now. They now feel it is their civic responsibility to report a shark if they're 10 nautical miles out to sea, and that may be reasonable as well because there are other ocean users other than those on the shoreline, such as divers and fishermen and the like. But it's hard to determine at the moment whether we have an increased population of sharks or are we just having more responses to the sighting of those sharks and people, as I say, looking at it as their civic responsibility to report those in.

James Woodford: Do you ever think that people have just got this a bit out of perspective?

Chris Peck: I do sometimes, James. I wonder sometimes whether it's because I'm too close to it because I deal with it on a day to day basis. The perception that is coming through here, James, is that what started off as a public safety issue is now morphing into probably what we would term a public amenity issue. People are starting to get a little bit edgy and agitated that there are a number of beach closures, more than we've probably seen over the last ten years in terms of their frequency, which means that people are having to stay out of the water for longer periods. And we have seen beach closures for as long as a day because a particular shark is hanging around in an area, and, as I say, it can be for a number of reasons, more likely because there's a natural food source for them to be in that area. But it's morphing into that public amenity issue. People are saying 'this is now having an impact on my recreational life' versus 'I understand that there is a public safety element to it'.

James Woodford: I guess there are times when those beach closures are probably unnecessary.

Chris Peck: I think in this current climate there's a high level government policy, and resources are being put into it, and perhaps we are erring on the side of caution more than we have in the past, but I'd have to say we don't make any apologies for that because I don't want to be the person or part of the organisation that took the threat of a shark hazard lightly and something happened to an individual.

James Woodford: Chris Peck. Through tagging, researchers are discovering that white sharks spend a lot more time closer to swimmers than was previously thought, but that does not mean a shark attack is imminent.

White shark expert, Barry Bruce:

Barry Bruce: It's also a matter of what presents a clear and present risk or an imminent threat. You know, does the presence of a shark alone off a beach mean that it is presenting an imminent risk? And that's probably the more interesting question, and the answer is no. Were starting to find out that sharks move into places where people occur and that they do so more frequently than we realised.

James Woodford: Barry Bruce says there are areas where white sharks congregate very close to swimmers and surfers.

Barry Bruce: Now, I give you an example of areas in New South Wales that we now know of where white sharks, for example, are reasonably common at a particular time of year around beaches that are also commonly used. And sharks and people come together quite frequently, much more frequently than people realise, and there has never been an attack at those particular beaches. These beaches form part of a nursery area for white sharks where there are juveniles present, but these juvenile white sharks can be anywhere between 1.7 metres up to 3 metres in length, and certainly of a size that have been known to attack people in various parts of Australia, but it doesn't seem to happen in these particular places. But what we're starting to see, naturally, is that sharks are turning up more frequently than we ever knew. A shark attack is probably the exception rather than the rule when sharks and people come together, and that's one of the reasons that makes shark attacks so difficult to predict and so difficult to understand.

James Woodford: With researchers now of the view that traditional ways of protecting public safety such as aerial patrols are not as effective as previously thought, the search is now on for a new generation of tools to make swimmers, paddlers, divers and others who use the water safer. Chris Peck from Surf Lifesaving Western Australia:

Chris Peck: There is a significant amount of money that Western Australians are putting into shark mitigation strategies, and whether that's through aerial surveillance, improving our on-beach surveillance strategies through additional lifeguard, lifesaving services, providing those services with better assets to be able to respond to emergencies and keep people away from hazards, so through the use of rapid response vehicles like jet skis, through to an inordinate amount of funding and research has been put in that to come up with other strategies of how we get early detection of sharks as they're coming into the coastline.

So trying to use the technology that's been around for a while, such as sonar, in terms of detecting shark shapes and giving an early alert system, using multi-spectral cameras to help with the identification of sharks in the water where the human eye can't necessarily penetrate the water column as far as some of these spectral cameras can do, through to shark deterrent devices such as shark shields. There's even a project going at the moment in relation to wetsuits and trying to make people invisible to sharks through the use of a wetsuit technology. So there's nothing like this going on like this in the world at the moment, and I think there is a substantial focus on Western Australia.

James Woodford: Are any of these research things that you are talking about, do any of those promise to be something that will actually help swimmers be safe in the water?

Chris Peck: Yes, I think so. There was a broad group of people that were pulled together by the government to form an assessment panel to assess the projects that were applied for for this research, and those projects that were selected in round one of that particular research grant were done so because the panel felt that there was a real strong possibility that if this research was proven, that it would have a direct effect and impact on people's ability to stay safe. And what we're really moving towards, James, is trying to have that personal responsibility and being able to take actions for yourself. So if you have a personal deterrent device, and that's not dissimilar to being in a work place and having personal protective equipment, you've got an opportunity to do something for yourself and not have to rely on other agencies or government to provide you with every solution.

James Woodford: That's Chris Peck from Surf Lifesaving WA.

Miles Parsons: My name is Miles Parsons, I'm a research fellow at the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University. We put together a project investigating sonar imaging of sharks. Our project would be contributing the idea of detecting sharks when they are coming close to an area that is populated by people. So the idea would be you get effectively a sonar system, put it in the water, have that running automatically, and then in an ideal world we would be able to have an automated detection of a shark as it approaches.

James Woodford: What kind of range could you potentially have with something like that?

Miles Parsons: That's one of the big questions that we need to answer, and not only do we need to answer how far away we can detect the sharks but whether or not that distance is suitable range for management of the shark encounters.

James Woodford: Funded by WA's Department of Commerce as part of phase one of the state's new shark hazard mitigation strategy, the researchers will start testing the sonar technology using dead and live sharks at beaches to see just how easily it can detect sharks. Such a trial is exactly what Kim Allen has been lobbying for. He witnessed a great white attack on a friend's surf ski. He is also a lifeguard and says it is important people feel safe at the beach.

 Kim Allen: I think it's about the general level of confidence for the population to swim in the ocean. I think that we advance in technology in so many other areas. We have a situation now where people who may like to go to the beach and take their children for a swim have this fear in the background. And I think it's a fundamental way of life, enjoying the Australian beach, and I think that we should be investigating the ways in which we can provide those levels of detection and possibly, following that, look at repellent. I think detection is the first thing, I think repellent comes after detection, because until you know what you're dealing with there's not a lot of point repelling it.

James Woodford: The fear of sharks runs deep. Even those with a good understanding of sharks and the reality of the threat they pose are not immune to being afraid, and that includes marine scientist and volunteer shark spotter Duncan Leadbitter.

Duncan Leadbitter: It's a bit like saying can you get in a car and be 100% certain you're not going to have a car accident. I think you've got to be realistic. Luckily we're sitting at a wooden table so I can say this and touch wood! I've been diving or spear fishing or swimming now for well over 30 years and in that time I've never seen a shark worth worrying about.

James Woodford: Yesterday I was at a dissection of a great white shark that was caught right near where you spear fish and swim. How do you feel about that?

Duncan Leadbitter: I wish you hadn't told me. [Laughs] To be honest, I know they're out there, because I've been and looked through the records of the shark meshing program, I know that Wattamolla, which is just up the road, has got the highest incidence of great whites south of Sydney. Man, you've just got to live with it.

James Woodford: Background Briefing's coordinating producer is Linda McGinness, research by Anna Whitfeld, technical production by Mark Don, the executive producer is Chris Bullock, and I'm James Woodford.


James Woodford
Anna Whitfeld
Supervising Producer
Linda McGinness
Sound Engineer
Mark Don
Executive Producer
Chris Bullock

Comments (28)

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  • Irene Hay :

    08 Mar 2013 7:19:37am

    While I sympathise with anyone who has lost a loved one through a shark attack and the people who have been injured/maimed, I think we all have to remember that the oceans are the sharks' territory. To tag sharks with the idea of going after them to slaughter them is an appalling idea. The oceans belong to the sharks, we invade their territory. More people are killed, maimed on our roads by motor vehicles....solution?

      • Tidus :

        09 Mar 2013 11:04:40am

        I totally agree. It is appalling. I also hope that the reasearches do stop tagging them then. I think it will be a shame that they have to halt their research due to someone trying to take advantage of their resources and use them to kill sharks.
        The ocean is their's, we have no right to kill them. Where do people get off thinking they have the right to go into their territory and extract revenge.

          • Nick Allan :

            10 Mar 2013 2:40:04pm

            Why do we have no right to kill them? We accept that we as humans have a right to kill plenty of other animals. Why not sharks? The ocean is not exclusively their domain.

            My question is, where do people get off drawing a moral equivalence between the life of a human being and the life of a shark?

              • Cafe :

                10 Mar 2013 2:52:18pm

                I guess if we keep going down that road ("moral" equivalence) we will end up being a very lonely species.

              • JoeBloggs :

                14 Mar 2013 9:44:58am

                "Why do we have no right to kill them?" - because they have a right to exist as a species.

                "We accept that we as humans have a right to kill plenty of other animals. Why not sharks?" - everything in moderation. Note too that we don't actually need to kill sharks to obtain our necessary dose of daily protein. Killing a shark is just a case of 'food entertainment' and showing off.

                "The ocean is not exclusively their domain" - actually it is. You see they can't get around on the land or air very well like humans can.

                Lastly you ask "where do people get off drawing a moral equivalence between the life of a human being and the life of a shark?" - Because life is important and equal, no one life is necessarily more important than another. To me the life of a species which is over abundant and over populating the planet is less important than the life of a species threatened with extinction (which is permanant).

      • Matt Webb :

        15 Mar 2013 11:40:47am

        Solution? Why not use the tags as a warning system instead?
        We've got a great opportunity tagging sharks to make our beaches safer!
        If a buoy detects a shark in the vicinity it could alert coast guards and people can be warned to wait on the beach.

          • Jonathan :

            15 Mar 2013 5:59:20pm

            Matt, that's exactly what they are doing in the Perth area and they're hoping to roll it out across the south west. But if you listen/read the transcript you'll see this could also have unintended consequences like giving people a false sense of security and/or annoying people because beaches keep getting closed even thought the sharks aren't actually posing a threat

  • Lucy Baker :

    08 Mar 2013 7:43:49am

    Hi there - On the website the leadin to this article reads: With five fatal shark attacks in a single year, there are calls in WA for scientific tracking devices to be used to track and potentially kill the predators.

    On Breakfast this morning Fran referred to five fatal shark attacks in TWO years. Could you clarify & correct if necessary?

    Many thanks

    Moderator: Thanks for your comment Lucy. There were 5 fatal shark attacks in W.A. between Sept 2011 and July 2012, so within a 12 month period but across 2 calendar years. These are the entries from the Australian Shark Attack File, which is held at the Taronga Conservation Society in Sydney.

    14 July 2012: Ben Linden, 24, is killed while surfing near Wedge Island, Western Australia, 180km north of Perth. A witness who tried to help said the shark swam away with the body.

    31 March 2012: Peter Kurmann, 33, is taken in south-western WA while diving in the Port Geographe Marina. His brother, who was diving with him, tried to fight off the shark with a knife.

    22 October, 2011: American tourist George Thomas Wainwright, 32, sustains horrific injuries and dies while scuba diving off Rottnest Island.

    10 October, 2011: Bryn Martin, 64, disappears at Cottesloe Beach and is presumed a shark attack victim. Only his damaged Speedos were found.

    4 Septembe

      • Daniel Stacey :

        08 Mar 2013 10:16:46am

        Hi Lucy,

        There were five fatal shark attacks in Western Australia across a 10 month period:

        Bodyboarder Kyle Burden, 21, was killed near Bunker Bay in September 2011.

        Bryn Martin, 64, disappeared while swimming off Cottesloe in October 2011.

        Texan George Thomas Wainwright, 32, died after an attack while scuba diving off Rottnest Island, in October 2011. This was also the first time in the WA history that the Fisheries Dept was ordered to kill the shark in question.

        Peter Kurmann was killed by a shark off the South-West coast in March 2012.

        Ben Linden died surfing near Wedge Island in July 2012.

          • JoeBloggs :

            08 Mar 2013 11:13:17am

            I note that Wedge Island is noted for its large seal population, and that Rottnest Island seal population nearby and other marine species known to be the natural prey of large sharks. It is suspected that this is once again a case of mistaken identity whereby a scuba diver and surfer were mistaken for natural prey.

            I agree with Irene that it is the sharks natural territory and we need to respect that these apex predators may make mistakes and target humans from time to time.

            If we went joggling or bird watching in a safari park full of lions we'd also expect to be eaten by lions and wouldn't necessarily call for a lion cull.

          • Cupol :

            10 Mar 2013 12:27:43pm

            With the exception of the March attack, all these attacks seem to have happened when water was colder. And the water of the south west coast should be colder.
            Also, during the warmer months there are more people in the water and that should mean more attacks, not less.
            This seems to be consistent with white pointer's preference for colder waters,although I would not rely on that :-)

  • JoeBloggs :

    08 Mar 2013 11:20:09am

    I note that around 73 million sharks are killed annually just for their fins.

    In some areas great white populations have plummeted by over 70% due to by-catch (the accidental killing of sharks by fishermen's longlines and trawlers), illegal poaching, illegal hunting & sportsfishing for shark jaws as trophies, nets placed along coastlines to keep sharks away from beaches, and pollution, toxins and heavy metals that build up in the shark's body. They face a very real prospect of becoming an extinct species.

    Culling them, or killing them in retribution for them doing what they do (being an apex predator in their own natural environment) doesn't appear to be an appropriate response.

  • steve callanan :

    08 Mar 2013 11:24:24am

    I suggest that sharks near popular beaches should be tasered to ensure the likelihood that those sharks would not return to those beaches.
    This course of action would prevent the need to kill them by deterring them
    from visiting that beach.

      • Cafe :

        10 Mar 2013 2:59:38pm

        Perhaps we can fit the sharks with electronic dog collars that zap the shark when they try and cross a line? A bit like the "invisible fences" so popular here in the USA?

        Then Steve and his mates can back this up by swimming out and tasering any shark foolish enough to cross the line. Oh and Steve, be prepared for some "cross-tasering", you may find yourself coming out of the water with very spikey hair and the ole short an curlies may be short, but no longer curly.

          • paul leonard hill :

            11 Mar 2013 8:51:28pm

            How the hell are you gonna use a taser underwater, especially salt water which is an extremely good conductor. You'd just do a very good job of tasering yourself and rile the Noah up so much he have to munch you just to get even.

  • Aidan :

    08 Mar 2013 11:29:46am

    Some aspects of this article merit some discussion.

    Firstly the assignment of Bryn Martin's death to a white Shark is highly questionable I feel. The damage to his bathers used as evidence of a 'shark attack' could just as reasonably (or even more likely) have been inflicted as a result of a shark consuming his remains following his drowning. Arguably this is the more likely scenario when one looks at the relative frequency of any number of conditions which can cause drowning (heart attack, shallow water black-out, stroke etc), and drownings themselves, relative to shark attack in Australia. More over, it's not clear how tear marks on bathers caused by a Great White can be differentiated from that caused by any other large predatory shark with any degree of confidence. I suspect that assignment of this fatality to a Great White shark reflects more a media earnestness, than any real supporting evidence.

    Additionally the claim that " there is a scientific argument that says that sharks that have attacked humans need to be destroyed because they may remain in proximity to beaches and strike again". I'm not aware of any peer-reviewed studies which make such a claim. Perhaps you could provide a link to support this? It is also not clear whether "proximity" of a shark to a beach means a 100m, 1Km, or 10's Km?

  • Information :

    08 Mar 2013 1:35:00pm

    The great white shark population has gone up significantly in past 20 years as a result of significant increases in the whale population. It has been estimated from research work that the whale population has gone up by a factor of 50 from their low point in the 1960's/1970's. With great white sharks feeding on whales (incl. young, old, sick)it is easy to understand why they have increased in number also. With a much larger shark population, it is inevitable that sharks will interact with humans in the ocean. There is no shortage of sharks off WA, so our society has to decide if we should take positive actions to protect the human population.

      • JoeBloggs :

        08 Mar 2013 2:13:59pm

        Your information is at odds with and inconsistent with the assessment by the IUCN Red List which classes Great Whites as Vulnerable to extinction and states that there is evidence of a continued decline in population numbers based of data from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Mediterranean.

        The Australian government environment site states that "The Great White Shark is, however, uncommon compared to other sharks and evidence (from game fishing, bycatch, netting or from observational data) indicates a declining global population. Evidence suggests that the population may have declined by at least 20% over the last three generations and, in some areas, the species is considered to have declined even more substantially over the same period (CITES 2004)." It then lists out the decline across various part of the world which is even more dramatic, ranging from 60% to 95%.

        There is no evidence to suggest a significant increase has occured, quite the opposite actually.

        The estimated global population is less than the global population of Tigers.

  • Helen Palma :

    08 Mar 2013 3:49:06pm

    It is shark territory afterall. There are often shark attacks off the coast of South Australia and Western Australia. Don't suppose it has anything to do with the live export industry and throwing dead sheep and cattle overboard around those waters where the majority of live animals are loaded? Ban live export!

      • Begs of Sandy :

        08 Mar 2013 9:34:47pm

        Of course, most sheep and cattle are fitted with masks, snorkels, wet-suits and flippers before being tossed overboard by nasty exporters, which naturally explains the attacks on similarly-dressed humans.
        Perhaps if divers were dressed in wool-skin or cow-hide (with horns, udders and hooves) the problem would be solved.
        Why is it always up to me to come up with the brilliant ideas ??

  • phillip nance :

    10 Mar 2013 11:37:07am

    The comment was made about provoked/unprovoked attacks. How can the observers know the Shark's motivation? This does not imply indiscriminate or any killing.

  • Pardalote :

    10 Mar 2013 11:58:52am

    Sharks are victims of the way humans and the politicians who represent them illogically analyse risk. Five deaths in one year, compared to how many deaths from road crashes and multiple times that in disability? How many deaths caused directly and indirectly by our community's love affair with a toxic substance called alcohol? I'm pretty sure there will have been more than five drownings in WA in the same period directly caused by alcohol intoxication, and yet you don't hear much discussion of it in the recent WA election campaign. Leave the sharks alone and take responsibility for your own behaviour.

  • Billinghurst :

    10 Mar 2013 2:21:27pm

    I am constantly disappointed about the lack of challenge of what is a flawed perception of risk.

    Facts are that people are significantly more likely to be killed driving to the beach, than by a shark at the beach.

    Facts are that people are more likely to drown at the beach, than they are to be attacked by a shark. Especially noted on a day when three people drowned in Victoria yesterday, and one in New South Wales today.

    Facts are that people go to work and are killed.

    Facts are that horses kill more humans than any other animal. [Australian coronial statistics] One would think that if we look at the causes of death and injury of scuba divers and surfers that sharks are not at the top.

    We accept the dangerous risks, but a shark living in the only place and habitat that it can is at fault.

    There seems that there a series of things that can be done to minimise deaths to sharks. In the end there is no perfection, and there is a level of risk that is be accepted when we go into another's habitat.

    Tag, research, etc. all fantastic. Slaughter seems beyond the pale.

      • paul leonard hill :

        10 Mar 2013 6:50:22pm

        Facts are that if you are one of those, half a mile off shore, and an enormous shadow passes under you then turns and rushes toward you, it's great gaping mouth open to expose huge razor sharp teeth, you don't give a rodent's rectum about all those bloody statistics. Horses don't have quite the terror factor of a giant Noah's Arc.

          • JoeBloggs :

            14 Mar 2013 9:38:08am


            Facts are that if you are one of those, half a mile off shore, and an enormous shadow passes under you then turns and rushes toward you.... and then you use appropriate body language that the Great White Shark understands and then it allows you to hitch a lift on its dorsal fin, when you let go it will come around again to let you have another go.

            As various people who are particularly familiar with shark behaviour are capable of doing in South Africa and other parts of our world.

            (the video footage of this type of interaction is quite stunning by the way)

  • paul leonard hill :

    10 Mar 2013 8:23:32pm

    I slip very gingerly into the water so as not to make too big a splash. I quickly descend down a vertical cliff face to a ledge about 50ft down and get in among the poppy weed for cover although I can't hide the bubbles coming out of my demand valve.. Nervously I scan for any big moving objects. Then I work my down deeper picking up abalone as I go and stuffing them into my net bag, constantly looking around. Then suddenly I'm on the edge of the bloody sand and I've run out of hose. So I'm in about 90 ft of water and there is 300 ft between me and the boat. If I ascend to get pulled in by my deckie I'll be hanging like a fly on the wall. My parachute, which lifts the net bag, is leaking like sieve, due to the pub taking precedence over maintenance.

    So I haul myself along the bottom, constantly shoving my demand valve under the neck of the parachute to keep the netbag from dragging on the bottom. Finally I can see the boat directly above me and I fill the 'chute and ascend. Then comes the shoving and grunting as my deckie pulls while I push the 250 odd pound bag over the side. This is where I feel most exposed.

    The place is Julia Percy Island where Henry Boyce got his leg chomped off and I'm on the deep Port Fairy side of the Island. There are many thousands of seals on the island which provide hors d'oeuvres for for the great white. They constantly swim around you, sometimes grabbing your hose in the mouths and pulling on it.

    Rumour had it that there was this white called Big Ben. He was 35 ft long. A fisherman made a rig to catch him which consisted of a truck axle shaped into a hook with oxy acetylene and arc welder. To this mammoth hook was fastened a length of heavy chain which was wrapped around a 44 gallon drum, itself anchored to the bottom so it wouldn't drift away. A bullock's heart was stuck on the hook for bait and the rig left for a couple of days. When the fisherman came back the bullocks heart was gone, the hook had been straightened and the 44 was almost flattened by being pulled down into deep water before the hook let go. I think there might be a bit of exaggeration in this story, but it and others is bound to strike terror into the hearts of of even the more gung ho of abalone divers.

    About 20 ab boats travelled from Portland to the island one day. Most of us fished the shallow side of the island this day. About 3 oclock I and my co diver decided we'd had enough terror for the day and climbed into the boat. To our amazement everyone else had gone home. “Where is everyone” we enquired of our deckie. He replied, “Big Ollie was in the water when a huge shape passed over him and bit a big bull seal in half. Blood and guts everywhere”. He jumped into his boat, came and told everyone and they all shot through, hours ago.” “Why the bloody Hell didn't tell us” we retorted indignantly. “I would not have made any money” come the nonchalant reply.

  • Shane Quinn :

    11 Mar 2013 8:51:00am

    From accounts i've read no one gets eaten by a shark, victims are released once the shark realises their catch is not a fish or seal. Sharks hunt marine food and would avoid human flesh so I ask why to surfers wear shiny black wetsuits to make themselves look just like a seal? Why not wear bright fluoro yellow wetsuits? Also has the illegal practice fish poaching inside our Contiguous zone waters depleted the sharks's staple diet?

  • Juliane Seitz-Las :

    05 Apr 2013 12:46:33am

    Quote Billy Connolly in one of his shows on the subject matter of shark incidents: " We don't belong in there!"
    I am sorry if someone lost a limb or a loved one through a shark but it is their kingdom. So be careful or stay out of it.