Shark net season is over early - but is it over for good?

Shark nets across NSW have been removed for winter and there are growing calls for them never to return.

All eight local councils in areas where shark nets are deployed have voted for their removal. Wollongong City Council has opposed the use of the nets since 2021.

In February the final affected council, Randwick, also voted to get rid of them.

The netting program is run by the NSW Government through the Department of Primary Industries.

The government’s own Threatened Species Scientific Committee released the Response to the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program 2023/2024 Annual Performance Report on Friday 28 March.

The report found there was no evidence shark nets reduced human fatalities from targeted shark species on the beaches where they were deployed.

Shark nets are seasonally deployed at 51 beaches from Newcastle to Wollongong and were removed on Monday (31 March).

The NSW Government will consider whether to return the nets in September as planned or to remove them permanently.

Greens candidate for Cunningham, Wollongong councillor and paramedic Jess Whittaker has backed the call for the nets to be removed.

“The death of these [non-target] animals off our beaches in shark nets is horrible,” Ms Whittaker said.

“These nets offer no protection to surfers and swimmers and are having an unacceptable impact on marine species which are critically endangered and federally protected.

“If elected, I will immediately call for an end to the exemptions that the states use under the EPBC Act to use shark nets.

“There are a number of modern-day alternatives including personal deterrent devices, drone spotting programs, public education and rapid trauma responses in the case of shark interactions.

“The Federal Government has the responsibility of protecting endangered marine wildlife and under the act we should be doing just that.”

This year the nets were taken down a month earlier than usual to protect turtles.

Last season Illawarra and Royal National Park shark nets caught and killed two green turtles, a leatherback turtle, a dolphin and a grey nurse shark, among other sea creatures.

Lawrence Chlebeck, marine biologist with Humane World for Animals Australia (formerly Humane Society International Australia) has led the campaign for the removal of shark nets in NSW.

He said in addition to harming wildlife, the nets gave water-goers a false sense of security.

“We want the public to be safe when they enter the water, not to be misled by something that is nothing more than a placebo, and quite possibly worse,” he said.

“The shark nets in question are not barriers and do not keep people safe, all they do is give a false sense of security and kill marine animals.”

The NSW Government made several changes in an attempt to reduce the nets’ impact on other wildlife this season.

These included increasing the frequency of net inspections by the net contractors during February and March from every third day to every second day, using drones to inspect the nets during March on the days the net contractors weren’t inspecting, and a trial of lights on nets to deter turtles and prevent their entanglement.

It is not known yet whether those measures were effective.