New South Wales government pauses planned shark net removals after deadly attack

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The deadly shark attack at a Sydney beach over the weekend has prompted the New South Wales government to pause its planned trial to remove shark nets from certain beaches.

Transcript

00:00The death of Mercury Zalarchus, the 57 year old, on Saturday at Long Reef Beach in the

00:09Northern Beaches has really first of all brought back the question of shark nets into the public

00:15conscience here in New South Wales. What the government have now decided is to effectively

00:20put on hold a planned trial for getting rid of shark nets effectively in three major council

00:28groups here in New South Wales. We have Waverley Council, Northern Beaches Council and the Central Coast.

00:35Now it's important to mention of course that the technology as well as the location itself of

00:41these trials was still very much in the works when this fatal attack happened on Saturday but

00:47it's obviously raised a lot of questions around not only the effectiveness of shark nets but also

00:52what some of those alternatives may be. Now we heard from Premier Chris Minns this morning,

00:58obviously first of all he's expressed his condolences to the family as well but he's also said that the

01:04big question is now what the report by the Department of Primary Industries particularly into Saturday's

01:11fatal shark attack does look like because obviously this will form a larger part of what will potentially

01:18be a big question as to whether or not this trial goes ahead. So let's take a quick listen to what

01:22the Premier had to say. We have to make decisions that we believe were in the public interest and

01:29obviously to keep the public safe and I'm not going to make any what I would regard as a rash decision

01:36before our investigators have had a look at the death and the circumstances surrounding it. I just want

01:41to make the point that DY beach is a netted beach and was not part of the trial but obviously it's a terrible

01:48tragedy and I need to work out what the next steps are. That won't happen until we get the report back.

01:54Now it's also important to mention that we've heard from a lot of anti-shark net advocates that an issue

02:01that can arise from the use of shark nets is not that they in any way stop or prevent sharks from

02:07getting closer to the beach. It's the fact that they can actually often catch a lot of other marine life

02:12which can effectively draw sharks nearer to the beach. Now Northern Beaches Council has certainly

02:20been debating this issue for over a year at this point. They're fully supportive of this investigation

02:26really raising some questions of whether or not this trial should go ahead so very much really

02:32does hinge on what the Department of Primary Industries says about Saturday's attack.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended