Photographs of sharks impaled on giant hooks spark calls for ban

Tiger shark population has declined by three-quarters since launch of program

Photographs showing sharks snared in hooks placed off the Australian coast to deter them from attacking humans have sparked calls for the practice to be banned.

Campaigners say nets and drumlines, or permanent fishing hooks, buoyed off the coast of Queensland have killed off some 9,000 tiger sharks – representing 75 per cent of their population – since their deployment in 1962 and are calling for their immediate removal.

Though Queensland has seen a decline in fatal attacks since the programme launched, campaigners argue that control measures are not proportionate to the threat.

Citing the findings of the recent official Australian Shark Report Card, Dr Leonardo Guida, of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said “numbers will keep dropping unless we make major improvements to the way they are managed”.

“The government should not be sanctioning the culling of a species in such perilous decline,” he said.