Fatal Attack brings back the debate on controversial shark nets in Australia

The ocean has always been a large part of the life of Glen Butler.

He has been a surfer for 50 years and, at that time, he said that he rarely thought of sharks.

“You know you enter their environment, so you are careful,” said the 61 -year -old BBC.

But Mr. Butler’s confidence on the water was broken last month.

He had gone to a surf with his friends on a Saturday morning at Long Reef in the beaches in the north of Sydney. A few minutes after Mr. Butler came out of the water, his compatriot Mercury Psillakis was killed by a large white shark.

“It has shaken us a little,” admits Mr. Butler. Mercury and his twin brother Mike were well known in the local community, he adds: “You would always say G’Day.”

The murder has relaunched a longtime and delicate debate on how to protect beach enthusiasts in the waters of Australia, and put the spotlight on the state of New South Wales (NSW).

The authorities here have a range of measures in their arsenal to alleviate the risk of shark attacks, but the most famous – and controversial – nets are deployed each summer on many beaches.

Environmentalists say that the nets do more harm than good – do little to prevent sharks from reaching popular breaks and cause massive damage to another marine life – but many frightened beach lovers remain attached to them like any other protective layer.

Australia is home to some of the best beaches in the world. More than 80% of the population lives on the coast, so swimming or a surf early in the morning is standard for thousands of people every day.

But there are people who believe that the daily ritual becomes increasingly risky.

Mirek Craney is one of them.

Sydneysider, 66 years old, remembers having Gawking on enormous great white sharks transported by fishermen when he was a child, at the time when the species now protected could still be legally hunted.

Seeing these dead animals suspended by their tails, he caused a feeling of “gallows”, he tells, but not fear. Sharks were deep ocean creatures, he reasoned, and he surfaces in the lower berries.

But five years ago, his daughter Anika was bitten by a shark for the pig’s eye during free diving on the large barrier barrier. Although she survived, it made Mr. Craney worried about creatures – something that grows with each title splashing on an attack.

“These things trigger me … I am panicked,” he admits.

Although “Merc” is only the second person killed by an attack of sharks in Sydney in the past six decades – the other being the British diver Simon Nelist in 2022 – it is not a comfort for those who regularly use the city beaches.

Each surfer to whom the BBC spoke in the weeks following the death of Psillakis said that they thought that the observations of sharks closer to the shore become more frequent.

“We could sometimes have seen a dark shadow, but it could have been a dolphin,” said Craney. “Now I see them all the time.”

Some fear that the number of sharks explodes, after several types – including the two deadliest sharks in the world, large whites and tigers – have received various degrees of protective in Australian waters.

There is little research on the number of sharks to be said definitively in both directions – but experts maintain that an increase in observations does not necessarily mean that there are more sharks.

Environmental experts suggest that warming of oceans change the swimming and feeding models of sharks. But the researchers say that any increase in observations is largely due to more and more people entering the water, and they are amplified by social media.

The probability of being bitten by a shark here in Australia is still minute. You are several thousand times more likely to drown. It is true, however, that the country is a shark attack hotspot.

It is second behind the United States – a country with 13 times the people – for shark bites, and this leads the world for fatal attacks, according to the international shark attack file.

This database follows only “unlikely” incidents – excluding people potentially encouraged by humans through activities such as spears fishing – but a more complete database of all shark interactions recorded in Australia is maintained by Taronga Conservation Society.

This shows that shark attacks have increased in recent decades. This year, there have been four deadly attacks – all not caused.

NSW had been about to try to reduce its use of shark nets – its oldest shark safety method – when the last deadly attack occurred.

Shark nets have been used in New South Wales since 1937 and these days are generally installed on 51 beaches from September to March. Aside from Queensland, it is the only state that still uses them.

It is impossible to reduce the whole beaches – the conditions of the ocean are too strong and simply wash the nets.

Instead, the shark nets measure approximately 150 m (492 feet) long and are seated a few meters below the surface of the water. Although anchored to the seabed at points, they do not reach the bottom. Thus, the sharks can pass, under and around them.

“It’s like throwing a towel in the swimming pool,” said Professor of the University of Sydney, Chris Pepin-Neff, at the BBC.

The state government claims that shark nets are “not designed to create a total barrier between bathers and sharks”, but rather aim to “intercept target sharks” during all the chases that bring them closer to the shore.

But researchers like Professor Pepin-Neff say that the nets are not very effective and give the illusion of security rather than providing a real risk reduction.

They note that 40% of sharks taken in the nets are actually on the side of the beach trying to go out.

Many criticism say they are so cruel.

“They are built to trap sharks or fish and they are effective, but unfortunately completely blind,” explains Dean Cropp who, as director of photography and ocean explorer, has been documenting these nets for years.

Last season, nearly 90% of animals captured in the nets of New South Wales were not target species – of which 11 in a critical way and largely of gray nurse sharks. The nets along the coast is also systematically entangled the humpback whales on their annual migration to and from the tropics.

“They will capture dolphins, turtles, fish, sting rays … and if they are a mammal or a reptile that resides in the air, it is a death sentence (unless they are released in time)”, explains Mr. Cropp.

Professor Pepin-Neff thinks that there is a danger that the animals that die in the nets also attract sharks on the beach.

“When other fish are caught in these nets, they sort of throw themselves and it sends a vibration underwater, a bit like ringing the dinner bell,” explains Professor Pepin-Neff.

Although the general public is wary of sharks, support for nets seems to decline.

A survey by Professor Pepin-Neff at Bondi Beach two years ago revealed that three-quarters of the respondents were swimming at the beach even if shark nets were removed. A similar number said they would not blame the state government for an attack.

And there are alternatives to shark nets.

Queensland and NSW also use streams, which are bait hooks that are anchored. NSW uses a less fatal “intelligent” variety of streams that alert the authorities that rush to tag, then release or move the sharks.

The Australia-Western has “ecos-barriers” which are entirely cut with small pieces of coastal with a more closely woven net-offering better protection for swimmers, but not surfers, while minimizing the damage to marine life.

Some surfers use electromagnetic shark deterrence bands, and there are even combinations presented as “bite resistant”.

There are also applications that follow tagged sharks and alert swimmers nearby if they approach the beaches.

And more and more drones are now used to patrol too. In NSW, more than 300 now work on 50 breaks and this number should grow.

“These are eyes in the sky, not just someone who looks since the water’s edge and perhaps spot a fin,” explains the drone operator Isaac salutes.

The buzz of his drone is particularly reassuring for the people where he steals today – we are in Dee Why, a neighboring beach in the bay where the recent deadly attack has occurred.

But due to funding constraints, the program only takes place during school holidays, when the beaches are busier.

“If we locate a shark, we can then tell the lifeguard and they can actively out and disperse the shark with a jet ski where we can evacuate the water.”

“It’s not just a passive measure.”

With the emergence of alternative sharks attenuation technologies and the campaigns highlighting the results of the nets on another marine life, it was decided that three beaches of Sydney would go without nets this summer.

But this plan was quickly suspended while waiting for a report on the death of Psillakis.

His family published a statement saying that he had loved the ocean despite his risks, and described his death as “a tragic and inevitable accident”.

But the authorities are nevertheless frightened.

“We were so close to removing the nets, then this tragic attack occurred,” said Cropp.

“No one wants to be the person who removes the shark nets and then there is a fatal attack just after. You don’t want this on your conscience.”

Simon Atkinson’s additional reports.