A young mother remains in hospital after being bitten by a shark at Coogee Beach in Sydney. Leah Stewart, 35, was swimming about 30 meters offshore when the shark — believed to be a three to four-meter great white shark — struck.
In the wake of this tragic incident, there have been renewed calls for a shark cull to be launched. Federal Liberal Party president Tony Abbott, for example, said:
It’s so wrong that we don’t cull sharks after attacks. It’s so wrong that we don’t have a commercial shark fishery given the explosion of shark numbers, and it’s so wrong that we don’t put people before sharks.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has since said his government is actively considering a cull of bull sharks in response to a surge in bull shark bites over summer.
So is the number of shark bites really increasing, and is it because shark numbers are exploding? What does the research say about the effectiveness of culling? And what other measures could keep ocean users safe?
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