‘Manipulative': Expert slams states on sluggish shark net stance
A Sydney shark expert has gone to town on the NSW and Queensland governments, accusing them of manipulating public perception in an effort to drum up support for shark nets and saying none of the available scientific evidence points to them being effective.
Shark nets across NSW beaches are taken in annually from mid-autumn to mid-spring, however the NSW government is conducting a review to determine shark mitigation measures for the 2025-26 summer, including support from local councils on the continued use of shark nets.
Speaking to NewsWire, The University of Sydney associate professor and shark behaviour expert Christopher Pepin-Neff said he believed two simple premises lay at the heart of the issue; firstly, that shark nets catch fish (Sutherland Shire council reported a 13 times differential between non-target animals caught in nets compared with the targeted eight species of sharks), and secondly, that in getting caught, those fish struggle and die and attract sharks.
'Shark nets attract sharks,' he said. 'There is no way that science exists everywhere in the ocean except on netted beaches in NSW or Queensland.
'That the vibrations that struggling fish make attract sharks everywhere in the ocean except when they get caught in a net at a netted beach in Australia.
'If science still applies, then we have to conclude that shark nets attract sharks to local beaches.'
The decision to use shark nets is left to the state government, and during the 2024-25 season, 51 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong used shark nets.
Professor Pepin-Neff said his principal objection to shark nets was that 'they are used by politicians when it is convenient for them to protect themselves by providing a false sense of security to the public'.
'Politicians know that the public has an idea that shark nets work and they are manipulating that public perception for their own benefit,' he said.
'It's a disgrace that in 2025, politicians have not come clean about the fact that shark nets and a lot of beach safety measures are mythical.
'For me, this is not an environmental issue; it is an issue of integrity in the policy process and respect for local constituents across Australia.'
The office of NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty declined to respond to NewsWire's request for comment; however Professor Pepin-Neff, received a letter from the Department of Primary Industries (DPIE) saying 'in 2024/25 the DPIE consulted the 25 coastal councils about their preferences for shark mitigation at beaches within their local government area'.
'The NSW government is currently considering the feedback from the councils as well as the evidence from the technologies used over the 2024/25 summer period to help inform the upcoming season,' the DPIE continued.
The Sutherland Shire in Sydney was one of the last councils in NSW to oppose the use of shark nets on its beaches. When the state government surveyed local councils in late 2024, councillors were presented with options and evidence for the various shark mitigation technologies.
Sutherland Shire councillor Kal Glaznig voted against the use of shark nets and speaking to NewsWire said 'just based on the evidence that was presented it was pretty clear that they're not the most effective tools to keep people safe'.
'I feel like it's a big education piece for beachgoers. The thing around shark nets and why there's a bit of hesitancy to take them out is this perceived safety, which from what I saw scientifically, there's no argument for,' he said.
'People in our community aren't getting in the ocean or not getting in the ocean because they feel like they're being saved with nets.'
Mr Glaznig said he couldn't speak for everyone, but during the council deliberation he didn't have a single constituent reaching out to say 'keep the nets in' but was instead inundated with community members who spent large amounts of time in the ocean saying they didn't believe the nets should be in.
'A lot of the evidence for me is around the fact that these nets have been here since 1937,' Mr Glaznig said. 'And I feel like if we just relied on existing measures for everything in life from nearly 100 years ago, we would be so backwards and behind.
'The ocean is such an unknown and you're never going to be able to control the elements, but you can definitely use better technologies and fuller solutions.'
'My take for the state government is for them to hopefully listen to what the councils who are on the ground with the community are saying because ultimately we are more accessible than state ministers in getting the response and the feel from the community.
'And our community in the Sutherland shire is telling us that they don't want shark nets and the experts that presented made it super clear that shark nets were not the most effective way to keep people safe.'
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