Baited drum lines on the way

The Dolphin Coast’s shark net protection may soon be upgraded with the introduction of baited drum lines (a shark hook suspended from an anchored float) .

The KwaDukuza municipality’s (KDM) amenities portfolio committee on Wednesday, July 22 for the second time approved a request to reduce the number of nets at selected beaches and install four baited drum lines for each net removed. This is commonly known as mixed gear protection.

KDM beach manager, Steve Honeysett said if the request is approved at the next EXCO meeting, the KZN Sharks Board (KZNSB) will be notified and the drum lines will be installed.

“The Sharks Board has been under pressure to reduce the number of shark nets for a long time due to the large amount of by-catch in the nets,” said Honeysett.

KZNSB head of operations, Mike Anderson-Reade said once given the green light, things would happen very quickly.

“It would just be a matter of acquiring the equipment and installing it,” said Anderson-Reade.

He said the KZNSB conducted a presentation to the amenities portfolio committee on October 1, 2014 in the hope of having the drum lines up before this year’s whale season.

Unfortunately that did not happen and a whale had to be rescued from the nets during this year’s Ballito Pro in front of the international surfing community and television cameras. A whale was also saved from the Westbrook shark nets in August last year.

The latest incident could have been prevented, had the amenities portfolio committee’s secretary taken the initial approval through to EXCO for final approval.

Zinkwazi, Blythedale, Salt Rock, Thompsons Bay and Willard beaches have been earmarked for this environmentally friendlier practice that is used extensively in Australia.

Mixed gear has also been used on the KZN Hibiscus Coast for the past seven years and has reduced harmless by-catch by 50 percent while during that time no shark attacks have occurred.

The switch to mixed gear protection will not cost KDM more than the current shark nets.

Shark nets do not form a complete barrier and sharks can swim over, under or around the ends of the nets.

Neither do drum lines form a physical barrier. Both types of equipment function by reducing shark numbers in the vicinity of protected beaches, lowering the probability of encounters between sharks and people at those beaches.

The nets may have a limited barrier effect as well, but the fact that about one-third of the catch is caught on the shoreward side of the nets is evidence that such an effect is only partial.