The popular Australian seaside town plagued by deadly shark attacks
Esperance is regularly touted for possessing some of the world's best beaches, but now this popular Australian tourist town is facing a crisis after becoming plagued by shark attacks.
Swimmers and surfers have long flocked this dreamy spot on the isolated south coast of Western Australia, about 400 miles from state capital Perth.
But many locals and tourists have become wary of entering Esperance's crystalline seas due to a tragic spate of shark attacks. Esperance had gone more than 100 years without such a death before four people were killed by sharks in just the last eight years.
This harrowing sequence of events has not only devastated the town's tiny community of about 10,000 people. It has also affected its reputation as a tourist destination, and sparked debate about just how aggressively authorities should implement anti-shark measures.
Most recently, in March, a 37-year-old tourist from Melbourne, Steven Jeffrey Payne, was surfing at Wharton Beach near Esperance when he died from a shark bite. Another surfer, 52-year-old Esperance man Andrew Sharpe, passed away in similar circumstances in October 2020 at Esperance's Kelp Beds.
Earlier that year, 57-year-old local Gary Johnson was killed by a shark while scuba diving at Cull Island near Esperance. And in April 2017, a 17-year-old tourist from Mandurah was fatally wounded by a shark while surfing at Kelp Beds.
It means Esperance has had four of the last seven deadly shark attacks in Western Australia. Such a concentration of deaths is unprecedented in this colossal state, which has more than 8,000 miles of coastline. As a result, these shark attacks have received heavy news coverage.
Ron Chambers, Esperance Shire President, said many locals and visitors were now cautious about entering the sea. 'Every life lost, be it a visitor or local, is deeply felt across the region,' Mr Chambers said. 'Locals and visitors are more alert, but not avoiding the water altogether. Some change where and when they enter the water, [but] the recent shark incidents have not stopped people coming to Esperance, our tourist numbers are still high.'
Should visitors to Western Australia be concerned? The state's Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said it has one of Australia's most comprehensive programmes aimed at protecting the public from sharks. It uses shark tagging, shark lookout towers, helicopter shark patrols, beachside warning systems, and shark sighting apps.
It also operates 'swimming enclosures' at seven of its most popular beaches, including Town Beach in Esperance, where a 300m net helps to block sharks.
The Western Australian government has also committed AUD $45,000 to upgrade seaside shark warning towers at Esperance's Twilight Beach, West Beach, and Kelp Beds. Government employees also visit locations inundated with sharks, such as floating whale carcasses.
There they attach digital tags to the most dangerous shark species: great white, tiger, and bull. Certain beaches across Western Australia have digital receivers which can detect these tagged sharks.
A detection prompts the nearby shark warning tower to activate flashing lights and warning sirens for at least one hour. Further shark detection comes via WA's Shark Smart phone app, which members of the public can use to log a shark sighting. Swimmers and surfers can check this app for real time reports of shark sightings.
All four of Esperance's recent attacks involved great white sharks, a giant species up to 6m long. A 2018 study by Australia's top scientific body, the CSIRO, found there were more than 1,000 great whites in Western Australian waters.
Esperance's natural environment and tourist activity have combined to cause its spate of shark attacks, said Dr Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research.
'Esperance is a pristine part of the coastline with a rich marine life, including a healthy population of Australian sea lions, a favourite food of white sharks,' Dr Naylor said.
'The increased density of white sharks in the area has resulted in an increase in bites on surfers. The surfers are likely mistaken for seals flopping around at the surface.'
Should I be worried about sharks in Australia?
Deadly shark attacks may make the news, but they're far less common than fatal car crashes, for example, says Dr Vincent Raoult, a marine ecologist from Australia's Griffith University. Over the past decade, Australia's had an average of 2.7 fatal shark attacks per year. Its annual road deaths are more than 40 times higher than that.
Tourists to Australia can reduce their chances of encountering a shark by following simple advice. Avoid entering the sea at dawn or dusk, when sharks are more active. Choose beaches that have shark nets, shark lookout towers, or lifeguard patrols. Stay close to the shore, and avoid beaches with heavy fishing activity, which can attract sharks.
Australian marine biologist Madeline Riley also recommends shark deterrent devices, which attach to a swimmers' limb and emit electrical pulses that can repel sharks. 'Some can reduce the risk of bites by around 60 per cent,' she said.
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Having just one station at the beach would have led to chaos, he insists. Caton says his anti-trains stance was not nimbyism but admits that in the years since he has rallied with fellow residents against several other proposals regarding local traffic and moves to reduce street parking. 'We are fighting all of these changes, but it's because they're stupid decisions; they don't consult the people who live here.' He says a train to the beach would make more sense elsewhere, such as at Maroubra. For now, Sydney must make do with low-capacity buses. An articulated bus such as those that run to Bondi can hold about 110 passengers compared with an average Sydney train service that moves 1,200 people. Buses also have a bumpier ride, are susceptible to traffic jams and aren't always accessible for older passengers, people with young children and those with disabilities. 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Given the transport-oriented development focus of the current NSW government, hopes for new rail infrastructure to the beaches are subdued. Clifton says extending existing light rail from Randwick to Coogee beach and from Kingsford to Maroubra beach are the most plausible options. But it would need significant support and campaigning from the local council and community, with Clifton pointing to the City of Sydney mayor Clover Moore's continued lobbying for the George Street light rail. 'If local communities want that, they should be developing plans and … advocating to government for those extensions,' Clayton says. The Randwick council mayor, Dylan Parker, says he would welcome government investing in such extensions. However, the council has not been actively lobbying for them. Guardian Australia understands the incline on Coogee Bay Road has been identified as a barrier to extending the light rail to Coogee beach. While trams historically travelled that route, the gradient could be problematic for the larger rolling stock in use today. Outside of extending light rail, future projects in Sydney are for driverless Metro trains, with the era of extending Sydney's heavy rail network, which has been hamstrung by maintenance problems and union disagreements, considered over. The NSW government is considering potential eastern extensions of the Sydney Metro West line set to open next decade. Proposals include running trains from the CBD to Green Square, the University of New South Wales and on to Maroubra and Malabar – which Randwick council supports.
