A 17-year-old surfer was mauled by a suspected 4m great white shark near Ballina on Monday. He was the fourth victim of a serious shark attack along the one-kilometre stretch of beach near Ballina in less than two years. The teenager is currently recovering in hospital from bites to his upper thigh.
Many nervous residents and holidaymakers on the NSW far north coast feel more should be done to protect surfers and swimmers from sharks. However, there is debate regarding which approach is best.
The ABC reports that the NSW Government signed contracts worth more than $2.6 million for shark barriers that were never installed in the region. One of the barriers, worth $1.3 million, was due to be installed at Ballina’s Lighthouse Beach, where the surfer was attacked. Attempts to install the barrier were abandoned in August, due to the weather and tidal conditions at the beach.
Another barrier at nearby Lennox Head, valued at $1.33 million, was scrapped after the design was deemed inappropriate for the beach.
Opposition primary industries spokesman Mick Veitch called on the Minister, Niall Blair, to explain the cost to taxpayers.
“The people of NSW need to know exactly how much has been spent to date on the failed eco-barriers,” Mr Veitch said. “More importantly, were there exit fees or breach of contract fees because of the failure?”
Mr Veitch said the Government should have known the eco-barriers were an unsuitable solution.
“If they’d spoken to the locals, they’d know there was a great risk with these eco-barriers because of the tidal action of that part of the coastline and the waves.”
Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair defended the cost and said some of the $2.6 million could be spent on other measures to prevent shark attacks.
“We’ve had a go at putting these in the water, they haven’t worked,” Mr Blair said. “The first stage of the trial has met those hurdles. We’ll now look at redirecting the funds that were allocated for the rest of the trial on those barriers into other mitigation strategies.”
Some feel that a cull would help. Le-Ba Boardriders president Don Munro said the NSW Government should do more to protect north coast surfers.
“We want drum lines in, we want the commercial fisherman locally to be given back their licence to manage and remove a shark permanently,” he said.
He said, while ‘wholesale slaughter’ was not the answer, there should be some sort of local cull.
“We’re going to just continue to see more attacks and they’ll end up, through sheer weight of the percentages … that we’re going to have fatal ones.”
In the meantime, local authorities have decided to re-open the beaches and scan the waters for sharks.
A trial of a shark-spotting drone, known as a ‘mini ripper’, resumed off Ballina’s Lighthouse Beach on Tuesday.
Little Ripper Rescue chief operations officer Ben Trollope said the mini ripper drone was fitted with a loud speaker, sirens, SOS lights and a flotation device with a shark shield.
He said no sharks were spotted on Tuesday.
“[The goal] is to be able to give people in the water early warning, rather than having no idea that the animal is actually there,” Mr Trollope said.
He said the drones would spend about 25 minutes of every hour in the air throughout the day.
Barriers and nets do more damage to others that the sharks.
You have to remember.
the sea is THEIR environment.
NOT OURS.
We are the intruders.
You go in. YOU accept consequences.
Wich is why I. at 75 yrs and been at sea all my life.
CANNOT swim.
I live above the surface
everything else can have UNDER the surfase.
We seem hell bent on destroying everything on this planet the lives.
Just to suit us.
Up here in Q’LAnd. Plenty of sharks. Shark BAITS. work well.
Floaters with baited hooks. a comtractor does the run every day.
and removes any shark there.
Simple. easy (as long as one if his mates annt on council and fixing figures.) and leaves the Whales etc in peace.
Just remember it’s THEIR environment.
NOT the whinging. screaming humans. Hell bent on killing everything.
much sympathy for the young bloke in question,but like all of us he knows the risk. when sharks start attacking people in Kmart we should start listening to dorks like WAs premier & go for the cull until then have respect for the ocean & her citizens.