Say what you want about the end result, but it would be hard to argue that the West Australian government didn’t at least make good on its promise on how it would deal with “rogue sharks” following the attack in Esperance on south west surfer, Sean Pollard.
Within hours of the dreadful mauling at Kelp Beds, Department of Fisheries had mobilised officers and two great white sharks were spotted in the vicinity, caught, “humanely destroyed” and transported to Perth for forensic analysis.
It had enacted a set of guidelines which permits the capture of great whites, a protected species, in case of an attack or confirmed sighting whereby the shark is deemed to be of “High hazard”.
The guidelines also state, “The high hazard refers to a shark of a size and species that is likely to be a species with a history of biting people.”
Of course, the analysis proved little other than the sharks may or may not have been responsible, but could it be argued that the swift response was at least a step in the right direction following the dismal failure of the multi million dollar drum line program?
WA Premier, Colin Barnett seems to think so and yesterday announced a similar boat to the one used in Esperance would be stationed in Margaret River, currently the statistically most likely place to be attacked by shark in Australia.
It will be available to respond to confirmed sightings of sharks deemed to pose an “imminent threat” and will reduce response times by up to three hours given the only other vessel in the region is moored in Dunsborough, a substantial open ocean trek to the north.
That vessel was deployed on Sunday after two men paddling an inflatable canoe were forced back to the beach at Castle Rock after a shark punctured their canoe.
But the Premier failed to outline the chain of command required to authorise the deployment of the vessel, when the vessel would arrive in Margaret River or if Fisheries Officers would also be stationed in the region.
Guidelines set in place by Fisheries state “all shark sightings should be reported to Water Police. This information is then sent by SMS to response agencies such as local government Rangers that can close beaches. It is also sent by SMS to Fisheries operations managers who monitor the information.”
Which is all well and good, except for the obvious fact that most of the Margaret River coastline is devoid of reliable mobile phone reception, a fact not lost on Gracetown local and keen surfer and diver, Wayne Baddock.
Mr Baddock, also a training officer for the Margaret River Volunteer Marine Rescue Group was on hand for the retrieval of Chris Boyd, who was fatally attacked in November 2013, while surfing Umbis in Gracetown.
He told Tracks the unreliability of mobile reception in the area often led to “confusion” in times of emergency response and urged the government to make good on promises to install towers which would boost signals.
“There’s not much point bringing your mobile phone to the beach here,” Mr Baddock said.
“At most of the spots, you’d struggle to get any sort of signal and the problem is ten fold when you try to get the message out to other emergency services.”
Mr Baddock, who’s lived in Gracetown for 28 years, said he was unsure if the announcement of a Fisheries vessel stationed in the area would allay any fears he had of sharks in the area.
“I’ve been on the fence for years over this issue,” he said.
“But, I was surfing North Point on Sunday and it’s front and center in your mind, everyone’s a bit twitchy. I guess having a boat in the area is a start, but sadly it’s all a bit after the fact. It will really only be deployed after an attack.”
Similarly, former professional surfer and shaper, Dave Macaulay said he was not sold on the idea, but applauded the Barnett government for at least addressing the issue.
“I’m not really sure what the real answer is,” Mr Macaulay said.
“But what happened in Esperance scared everyone…again.”
Or, as suggested by the Premier, we can all get over it and make decision for ourselves.
“Ultimately people need to take responsibility for themselves and make responsible decisions about their water use,” Mr Barnett said.
“Be it in relation to surf conditions or shark sightings.”
