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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 898 asked in the Legislative Council on 9 November 2021 by Hon Tjorn Sibma

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

SHARKS — HAZARD MITIGATION

898. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister for Fisheries:

I refer to shark hazard mitigation activities.

(1) Prior to this past weekend's tragedy, when was the most recent occasion on which the Department of Fisheries undertook a shark tagging operation in the metropolitan area?

(2) How many sharks, by species, length and interception location, have been tagged and released in the year to date?

(3) I refer to the minister's media statement of 17 October and ask whether the two automated shark warning towers allocated ''for deployment'' to the Town of Cottesloe are operational?

Hon KYLE McGINN replied:

I thank the member for some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister for Fisheries.

(1) The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development last conducted shark tagging operations in the metropolitan area on 3 November 2021 in Cockburn Sound.

(2) To date, 14 white sharks have been acoustically tagged and released in Western Australian waters in 2021. The rest of this part of the answer is in tabular form. I seek leave to have it incorporated into Hansard.

[Leave granted for the following material to be incorporated.]

Date

Species

Total Length (cm)

Release Location

 

24-Oct-21

White Shark

280

Cockburn Sound

Metropolitan

14-Oct-21

White Shark

361

Cockburn Sound

Metropolitan

14-Oct-21

White Shark

303

Cockburn Sound

Metropolitan

22-Sep-21

White Shark

269

Cockburn Sound

Metropolitan

18-Jun-21

White Shark

431

Nanarup Beach

Albany

31-Jan-21

White Shark

319

Alexander Point (East)

Esperance

30-Jan-21

White Shark

308

Alexander Point (East)

Esperance

16-Jan-21

White Shark

260

Salisbury Island

Esperance

16-Jan-21

White Shark

419

Salisbury Island

Esperance

16-Jan-21

White Shark

387

Salisbury Island

Esperance

15-Jan-21

White Shark

361

Salisbury Island

Esperance

15-Jan-21

White Shark

292

Salisbury Island

Esperance

15-Jan-21

White Shark

356

Salisbury Island

Esperance

15-Jan-21

White Shark

356

Salisbury Island

Esperance

 

(3) Two shark warning towers were installed by the Town of Cottesloe on 1 November 2021. The towers can be manually activated by Town of Cottesloe rangers. DPIRD is currently working on programming these towers to operate automatically when a shark is detected on an adjacent shark monitoring receiver. It is expected that the towers will be automated by the end of November 2021.