WE NEED SHARK PLANES
EXPERT: Aerial patrols will make us safer
ONE of Australia’s leading shark experts says patrol planes could be the answer to keeping people safe from attacks in our surf.
Deakin University Associate Professor, Laurie Laurenson, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, has weighed in on the national shark culling debate reignited by a recent attack in Ballina, New South Wales.
The incident, in which 17-yearold Cooper Allen was bitten on the upper-thigh by a 3.5m great white shark, sparked a strong response from former Prime Minister and keen surfer Tony Abbott who called for more nets to be installed across the state.
Mr Abbott’s voice joined a chorus of lobby groups pressuring Premier Mike Baird to extend shark prevention measures in Sydney to regional NSW, but Mr Laurenson said in-water protection such as nets, drum lines and current rates of culling was not the answer.
“Growing up in Perth there was a shark spotter plane flying up and down the coast all the time, you would see it every half an hour — that works but it’s more expensive,” he said.
“People want to start using drones and all sorts of other things but the thing that I recall working mostly was having a pair of eyes.
“A pair of eyes works, seriously it works, and it surprises me that process doesn’t get instigated more.”
Mr Laurenson said, while the rare and spasmodic nature of shark attacks makes it hard to identify common factors, failing to swim between the flags – where there are many trained sets of eyes – could be one.
After analysing 50 years of data about shark mitigation programs in NSW and South Africa for a recent paper, the researcher concluded that targeting specific beaches, as is done in NSW, is not effective.
“What our study seems to show is that you can try and fish the sharks down at one beach or one set of beaches but we can’t statistically show that you’re getting less attacks,” he said.
“Because great white sharks in particular are capable of moving such large distances, you remove it from a beach and within 24 hours ... they can be back at (another) beach 100km away.”
It’s estimated the shark population has already reduced about 60 per cent since the 1950s with human interference the “most logical reason” for the decline.