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MORE THAN 80 per cent of sharks caught so far on the Baird government’s so-called SMART drumlines are smaller than the predators mostly responsible for attacking and killing surfers and swimmers along the NSW coast.
The drumlines have been hailed as one of the government’s key weapons in the fight to reduce shark attacks, with an extra 100 lines deployed following last week’s attack on teen surfer Cooper Allen in Ballina.
But tagging data shows that of the 37 white pointers tagged, released offshore and tracked online since the drumlines were introduced last year, just six were 3m or above — and none of them was a full-grown adult.
Most of the serious and fatal attacks off NSW have involved sharks at least 3m in length, with the most recent fatal attack — on Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara off Ballina last February — involving a great white estimated to be as long as 4m.
The shark that attacked Cooper is thought to have been nearly 4m. A drumline installed near where he was mauled failed to protect him.
Northern NSW shark hunter Joel Merchant said the Baird government was playing games by neglecting the man-eaters that were lurking in the deep.
“These scientists are just randomly baiting a hook in the middle of nowhere and hoping a shark takes a bite,’’ Mr Merchant said.
“Imagine one of those marine scientists trying to tag an adult great white caught on one of the hooks. It would be pretty funny to watch.