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Shifts in the incidence of shark bites and efficacy of beach-focussed mitigation in Australia

2023; Elsevier BV; Volume: 198; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115855

1879-3363

Charlie Huveneers, Craig Blount, Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Paul A. Butcher, Marcus P. Lincoln Smith, William G. Macbeth, Daryl McPhee, Natalie A. Moltschaniwskyj, Victor M. Peddemors, Marcel Green,

Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies

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.