Spike in South West shark sightings

Aerial patrols of WA’s South West coast have found a big increase in shark numbers spotted close to beaches in autumn, with 70 per cent of last season’s sightings made in April.

Surf Life Saving WA’s helicopter patrols spotted 228 sharks from October last year to April along the South West coast — 134 of them in April.

Less than half as many sharks were seen in the metropolitan area, despite more daily patrols over the same period.

Sharks were most often spotted in December and January along Perth’s coast. Almost a third of all metropolitan shark sightings were at Scarborough, Port and South beaches.

Surf Life Saving WA’s aviation services manager Peter Scott said it was not clear why there had been so many shark sightings in the South West in April.

“The guys say if they’re flying along and they don’t see any dolphins or any whales, they won’t see any sharks,” he said.

“But when they see dolphins and other things, they always see sharks as well.

“Certainly around that time the guys were saying they were seeing a lot of big bait balls, a grouping of couple of hundred fish together, and the sharks were sniffing around. You have all these little events and there’s no doubt a correlation.”

Last year the State Government allocated $650,000 to extend aerial patrols in the South West on weekends, school and public holidays until the end of April for the first time.

Almost half of the sharks spotted in the South West in April were seen at Smiths beach and the Windmills surf break.

The spate of April sightings is at odds with the popular theory there are more sharks, particularly great whites, along the WA coast in October and November.

“Anecdotally the feedback we get from the community is it’s in that early part of the season that they’re more on edge,” Mr Scott said.

The helicopter crew are often unable to confirm the shark species spotted but log its size.

In the South West, 92 sharks were estimated to be 3m or longer, including a 5.5m great white 10m from shore at Bird Rock near Busselton and a 5.5m tiger shark 10m from Meelup beach.

In the metropolitan area, 34 sharks 3m or bigger were spotted, including a 4m shark 50m off Swanbourne beach in April.

“I think what’s surprising to a lot of people is how close they are to the water’s edge. I think people have this vision that they’re 500m off the shore but, in the South West in particular, quite often they’re 5m to 10m off the shore,” Mr Scott said.

He said beaches such as Smiths and Scarborough had more shark sightings partly because of the good visibility from the helicopter.

“It’s very sandy, so it’s very easy to see as opposed to when you get down to around to the Gracetown-Margaret River area where it’s quite reefy, so the visibility is not as good,” he said.

“It’s the same in the metro area. We have hardly any sightings between Trigg and Hillarys because it’s quite reefy and it’s difficult to see.

“Whereas Trigg Island to City Beach, it’s all sand and so, particularly in the Scarborough-Brighton area, we see a lot of sharks around there because the visibility is really good.”

Mr Scott said if people were concerned about sharks, they should use beaches with good visibility and a sandy aspect.

For every shark sighting, helicopter crews send out an alert to councils, Twitter and the SharkSmart website.

The water was cleared 93 times and beaches closed 27 times.

“ Every time we clear the water, in my mind, we’re preventing an interaction,” Mr Scott said.

“Whether that animal just goes about his daily business, we’ll never know.

“But if we’ve done what we can to prevent an interaction, that’s a benefit to everyone.”