SHARKS — HAZARD MITIGATION
935. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Fisheries:
I refer to the answer provided to my
question yesterday about the two automated shark warning towers that the
minister advised were installed by the Town of Cottesloe on 1 November.
(1) Were either of these towers manually activated
prior to the suspected fatal attack on Saturday, 6 November?
(2) If no to (1), why not?
(3) Were these towers manually
activated after reports of the attack emerged; and, if so, at what time?
(4) Why were these towers not programmed by the
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to operate
automatically after they were installed on 1 November?
(5) Will DPIRD
bring forward its plan to automate the towers as a matter of priority, and
before the end of this calendar month?
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)–(3) The shark alarm towers at Cottesloe and North
Cottesloe Beaches are managed and operated by the Town of Cottesloe.
(4) The shark
alarm towers at Cottesloe and North Cottesloe were installed by the Town of
Cottesloe. The Department of Primary
Industries and Regional Development is currently working to automate these two towers
from the adjacent shark monitoring receivers at Cottesloe and North Cottesloe.
(5) DPIRD is working to automate the
shark alarm towers as a matter of priority.