Anti-Shark Warfare 119 



This diagrammatic view shows how the shark meshing net system is used to protect the 



swimming area at Port Stephens, New South Wales, Austraha. Once a shark's head 



is through the net, it is trapped because its gill sHts are snared and a shark is physically 



unable to back up. Courtesy, Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Co. from 



The Fishes of Australia by G. P. Whitley, 1940 



Heavy anchors at each end hold them in position. The fishermen who 

 have the government contract to keep Sydney's beaches shark-free are 

 not permitted to set baits to attract them. Nor are they paid by the 

 number of sharks caught. They get a flat annual fee, and government 

 inspectors regularly accompany them in meshing trips to make sure that 

 they are fulfilling their contract. Sharks are often drowned in the nets, 

 their gills unable to function. Those that are still alive when the mesh 

 is cleared are killed, and their carcasses towed to sea and dumped. 

 (Though Australians do eat sharks, they abstain from eating dangerous 

 species.) 



North of Sydney, and along the rivers, estuaries, and harbors of the 

 eastern coast of Australia, sharks still attack swimmers. In an average 

 year, at least one swimmer is killed in Australian waters unprotected by 

 meshing. 



Meshing cannot be effective under all conditions. Heavy seas wash 

 the nets away. If the nets are not properly located along shark pathways, 

 they are inefiFective. Meshes sometimes keep sharks within a bathing area, 

 a chilling fact which has been proved by finding sharks that had been 

 snared in the nets as they attempted to travel away from meshed beaches. 



In 1952, after 35 shark attacks in 10 years, authorities in Durban, 

 South Africa, decided to try meshing. In previous years, going back 

 to 1907, they had tried practically everything else, from shark watch- 



