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Shifts in the incidence of shark bites and efficacy of beach-focussed mitigation in Australia4.06 MB
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open
Journal article
Shifts in the incidence of shark bites and efficacy of beach-focussed mitigation in Australia
Marine pollution bulletin, Vol.198, 115855
01/2024
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Source: InCites
Abstract
Shark-human interactions are some of the most pervasive human-wildlife conflicts, and their frequencies are increasing globally. New South Wales (Australia) was the first to implement a broad-scale program of shark-bite mitigation in 1937 using shark nets, which expanded in the late 2010s to include non-lethal measures. Using 196 unprovoked shark-human interactions recorded in New South Wales since 1900, we show that bites shifted from being predominantly on swimmers to 79 % on surfers by the 1980s and increased 2-4-fold. We could not detect differences in the interaction rate at netted versus non-netted beaches since the 2000s, partly because of low incidence and high variance. Although shark-human interactions continued to occur at beaches with tagged-shark listening stations, there were no interactions while SMART drumlines and/or drones were deployed. Our effect-size analyses show that a small increase in the difference between mitigated and non-mitigated beaches could indicate reductions in shark-human interactions. Area-based protection alone is insufficient to reduce shark-human interactions, so we propose a new, globally transferable approach to minimise risk of shark bite more effectively.
Details
- Title
- Shifts in the incidence of shark bites and efficacy of beach-focussed mitigation in Australia
- Creators
- Charlie Huveneers - Flinders UniversityCraig Blount - Stantec Australia Pty Ltd. (St Leonards, New South Wales)Corey J A Bradshaw - Flinders UniversityPaul A Butcher - Southern Cross UniversityMarcus P Lincoln Smith - Macquarie UniversityWilliam G Macbeth - Stantec Australia Pty Ltd. (St Leonards, New South Wales)Daryl P McPhee - Bond UniversityNatalie Moltschaniwskyj - New South Wales Department of Primary IndustriesVictor M Peddemors - Sydney Institute of Marine ScienceMarcel Green - Sydney Institute of Marine Science
- Publication Details
- Marine pollution bulletin, Vol.198, 115855
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Identifiers
- 991013154013102368
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article