Drumlines long overdue, says Sharks Board
Alternative to shark nets still needs green light from KwaDukuza municipality.
The KZN Sharks Board hopes to replace up to half of the nets at protected Dolphin Coast beaches with drumlines (a shark hook suspended from an anchored float).
However they are still waiting for permission to go ahead from KwaDukuza municipality (KDM).
The KZN Sharks Board delivered a presentation on the drumlines to KDM on October 1 last year and KDM apparently welcomed the idea of replacing some of the shark nets along our coast with drumlines (also known as baited hooks), but to date, no progress has been made and it is not known if or when the more environmentally friendly shark devices will be installed.
Drumlines are successfully being used on the Hibiscus Coast, and in Queensland, Australia and cost more or less the same as shark nets to install and maintain.
The point of replacing some of the shark nets with drumlines is to reduce the by-catch of non targeted species such as dolphins, rays, and shark species like ragged tooth sharks and spinners that pose little threat to bathers.
“Since using drumlines on the Hibiscus Coast, the by-catch of non targeted harmless species in the area has been reduced by 47.5 percent and there has been a 33 percent reduction in suspected whale entanglement,” said Sharks Board operations manager, Mike Anderson-Reade.
He said at the same time there has been no significant difference in the mean annual catch of great white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks.
“The combined gear therefore offers the same protection to bathers as the nets do, but with the benefit of a dramatically reduced by catch of nontargeted harmless species,” said Anderson-Reade.
He said they only replace up to half of the nets at protected beaches with drumlines.
Where there are three nets, for example, they remove one and replace it with four drumlines.
Anderson-Reade said the ultimate goal would be to replace all fishing devices (nets and drumlines) with non-lethal electrical shark repellents but a lot more research was needed before the electrical field system could be considered as an alternative.
