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Grey
nurse shark netted off Bondi Beach - 20th December
2007
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
An endangered grey nurse shark
has been caught in a shark net off Sydney's Bondi
Beach in what the NSW Department of Primary Industries
(DPI) says is an "unfortunate" incident.
The
dead three-metre shark was pulled from the water
on Thursday morning.
"It's
unclear when it was caught in the net but it was
removed today," a DPI spokeswoman told AAP.
"It's
really unfortunate that it was a grey nurse."
The
sharks are classified as critically endangered
under Commonwealth legislation and endangered
under NSW laws.
The
DPI said it was "very rare" for a grey
nurse to be caught in one of its nets.
"We
don't catch many grey nurse sharks as part of
the beach meshing program," the DPI spokeswoman
said.
"We
take samples from any protected species (that
are caught) so we can learn more about them."
The
NSW government's beach meshing program was introduced
in 1937 and nets now protect swimmers on 51 beaches
from Newcastle to Wollongong.
The
nets, managed by the DPI's fishing and aquaculture
division, are in place from September to April
each year.
They
are 150 metres long by six metres deep and set
in around 10 metres of water within 500 metres
of the shore.
It
is believed the discovery of the grey nurse shark
was made on Wednesday by a television crew filming
Bondi Rescue - a show about Surf Life Saving on
the iconic beach.
The
DPI confirmed "that someone reported it"
to the contractor who maintains the nets on behalf
of the government department.
The
Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund today called
for shark nets to be banned on NSW beaches.
"To
lose such an important animal ... for such an
antiquated program is nothing short of a tragic
waste, and a huge setback for the conservation
of grey nurses," fund program coordinator
Claudette Rechtorik said in a statement.
"The
taxpayer money spent on the meshing contract each
year should be used to develop less destructive
beach protection that already exists."
The
fund argues grey nurse sharks are facing extinction
within 20 years.
But
Surf Life Saving NSW said it was "100 per
cent behind" the nets despite the fact endangered
species were occasionally trapped in them.
"The
results speak for themselves," Surf Life
Saving NSW media and communications officer Brett
Moore said.
"The
records show since the nets were brought in about
70 years ago the number of fatalities has been
unbelievable low.
"Before
the 1930s they averaged about one a year and I
believe there's only been one since then on netted
beaches."
On
Tuesday, South Australian man Ben Morcom was surfing
near Newcastle when he was bitten by a shark on
his right buttock.
However,
doubt has been cast on a man's claim that he was
bitten by a shark while swimming at South Bondi
beach.
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