The nets, while in place to prevent sharks from attacking swimmers, often end up catching other animals, and can be evaded by sharks, who swim below or around them.
Australia’s leading shark biologists and conservationists are campaigning for shark nets to be removed from all east coast beaches, permanently.
The nets are meant to protect swimmers from shark attacks, but there are serious questions about their efficacy and the number of endangered species also being caught and killed.
Queensland has 26 shark nets in place all year round – New South Wales has 51 nets and removes them during the whale migration season. State governments run the net schemes and their maintenance.
Sky News travelled by boat off Sydney’s coast to see the nets at Manly in northern Sydney.
What’s striking is the length of them. They are only 150 metres long, while the beach is half a mile.
It’s a similar story at Bondi beach – the nets don’t cover the entire length of it, only a small part.
“Sharks can swim above, around and underneath the nets,” Lawrence Chlebeck, a biologist for the Humane Society International, explains.
“In fact, 40% of sharks are caught on the inside of the nets, trying to make their way back out to open water.”
The New South Wales government’s Annual Shark Meshing Program Reports have found more than 90% of what’s caught in the nets is non-target species, often endangered marine life.
Using Australia’s Freedom of Information Act, the shark advocacy organisation Envoy Foundation obtained video and photos of marine life caught in the nets.
“The worst stuff we’ve uncovered is probably dead baby dolphins, dead seals, dead turtles,” Envoy Foundation’s Andre Borrel says.
There is a growing chorus of councils and mayors demanding an end to the nets.
Waverley Council Mayor Paula Masselos wants them removed from Bondi beach, telling Sky News: “When you look at the summer period, 2021 to 2022, there were 376 animals caught in the nets. 325 of those were non-target species.”
A statement from Queensland’s Department of Fisheries said it will continue to invest in its Shark Control Program even though the nets do not provide an “impenetrable barrier” between sharks and humans.
Over the last five years, there have been 14 fatal shark attacks in the country, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database.
Biologist Lauren Sandeman at conservation group Sea Shepherd says about 85% of interactions with sharks in Sydney happen on netted beaches.
But for survivors of shark attacks, the experience is unforgettable and life-changing.