As authorities grapple with the best way to respond to the tragedy, it’s worth remembering all shark mitigation measures come with both merits and drawbacks – and none is a silver bullet.
Estimating shark numbers is extremely difficult and very contentious.
Elias Levy/Flickr
A Senate committee has recommended an end to sharks culls and nets. According to surveys, the public is on board with the idea of ending policies that are lethal to sharks.
A shark’s nose is chemosensory only, and it doesn’t join up to the back of the throat like ours does.
Flickr/Leszek Leszczynski
LIfeguards could potentially have a new ally in the fight to reduce shark incidents: drones that can spot when a shark swims nearby, and automatically alert authorities.
Hammerheads are the species most caught in NSW’s shark nets.
Shark image from www.shutterstock.com
More research may not necessarily prove to be the answer to shark attacks. Instead, we should look at programs that are already working, such as aerial patrols.
A greynurse shark complete with a tracking device - scientifically the best way to keep tabs on what sharks are up to.
AAP Image/NSW Ministery for Agriculture and Fisheries
Calls are growing louder for a shark cull in New South Wales. But like in Western Australia, which infamously experimented with culling last year, a NSW cull would harm sharks while failing to protect people.
The moment a shark encounters Australian champion surfer Mick Fanning.
AAP Image/World Surf League, Kirstin Scholtz
Although frightening, the footage of Mick Fanning at Jeffreys Bay is a reminder that sharks are present in the oceans, and that the vast majority of interactions between people and sharks end without fatality or injury.
You didn’t need a onesie to get hot under the collar about sharks in 2014.
AAP Image/Theron Kirkman
Want a single word to sum up environmental affairs in 2014? Let’s go with “heated”. The year began with the realisation that 2013 was Australia’s hottest ever (and yes, it’s because of us), and ended with…
Western Australia has killed two great white sharks after a surfer was seriously injured last week.
Sharkdiver.com/Wikimedia Commons
When I used to tell people that I did my PhD on the politics of shark attacks, they would ask, “Is there a politics to shark attacks?” Nobody asks that any more. Now they just say, “Oh, like in Western…
The shark cull that ran for three months off Perth and the Southwest now looks certain to be ended.
AAP Image/Sea Shepherd
Western Australia’s controversial shark drum line policy will come to an end, after the state’s Environmental Protection Agency recommended that it not be continued this summer. WA EPA chairman Paul Vogel…