Shark expert criticises Tony Abbott for calling for cull after Sydney attack

A shark behaviour expert has said Tony Abbott “doesn’t understand the science” after the former prime minister called for sharks to be culled following an attack at a Sydney beach.

A woman in her 30s was in a critical but stable condition on Monday after being bitten on the leg and arm by what was thought to be a great white shark on Saturday morning.

Abbott said in a social media video it was “so wrong that we don’t cull sharks after attacks” and called for a fishery to catch sharks.

Emeritus professor Rob Harcourt, who leads the Marine Predator Research Group at Macquarie University, said a cull would make no difference to the risk of shark attacks. “What’s the point in a cull? A cull won’t change the risk unless you completely remove white sharks from the ocean. It’s not feasible and it would be an ecological catastrophe,” he said. He called the incident rare and described calls for a cull as a kneejerk reaction not based on evidence.

Prof Culum Brown, who researches fish behaviour at Macquarie University, said calls for a cull were “a very naive way of scoring political points”. He said people should look for ways to coexist with nature rather than taking an 18th-century approach.

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, noted the great white shark is a protected species and ruled out a cull. “I’m not convinced it would work and we’ve certainly had no expert evidence suggesting to us that we could ward away great whites from our beaches as a result of a cull,” he said. He called for a rethink on shark protection, including shark netting and new technology such as drones.

Harcourt said using drones to survey beaches was a more practical way to reduce bites. “If you put drones over a beach and then call people in [when sharks are spotted] then you are less likely to be bitten,” he said.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority on Monday temporarily lifted a ban on using drones to survey for sharks at Coogee, an eastern suburb beach close to Sydney airport flight paths.

Dr Daryl McPhee from Bond University, researching shark bite trends, said: “Had drones been able to fly, this is one bite that could have been avoided.” He said it was extremely rare for a person to be bitten on a patrolled beach.

McPhee said between 1980 and 1999 there was an average of 0.6 shark bites causing injury per year in New South Wales, but the current rate was 4.16. Most of the rise was driven by bites in the north of the state. He said population growth and increasing whale populations attract more great white sharks.

Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane World for Animals, said culls cannot work because sharks are migratory. He said using bait could increase shark activity and thus the risk. Since 2012, 174 great white sharks, 40 bull sharks and 42 tiger sharks have been killed by the state's shark nets.