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.