Professional fisherman will be on hand to track down and kill any sharks that swim into the 1km ‘kill zones’, which have been set up along busy shorelines.
Sharks will also be caught around the beaches of Perth and the south west by the use of baited lines.
The protective measures have been put into place after a recent spate of shark-related deaths in Western Australia. However, before these incidents, the only fatal shark attacks off the Western Australia coast happened approximately once every eight years. Since 2010, the number of attacks has increased – and six deaths have been attributed to sharks in the last two years.
Despite the government’s fisheries minister, Troy Buswell, refusing to label the plans as a cull, the move has upset animal activists, who have expressed their desire to protect the sharks.
Speaking to ABC News, one protester said: ‘Great white sharks are important to the ecosystem and important to the survival of the ocean, and they need protection. That’s why they’ve already been given that protected status and I don’t think that politicians get it when they’re making these decisions on knee-jerk reactions.’
