Summer shark nets to combat 'risk'

A net to keep out sharks will be installed at Busselton this summer, the first of 22 possible enclosures of the kind across the WA coastline.

Premier Colin Barnett announced today the government would spend $200,000 on the swimming enclosure and would launch additional helicopter patrols of South West beaches starting tomorrow. A Government-commissioned report identified areas along the coast suitable for the swimming enclosures following evaluation of a trial shark barrier at Old Dunsborough beach.

Mr Barnett said the concentration of the program on net enclosures would be in the South West "where clearly the risk of a shark attack is greater".

He said another net would also be installed at a yet to be determined metropolitan beach.

"These net arrangements are not suited to rougher weather and I think that's always going to be the case so you need a protected calm beach," Mr Barnett said.

"They won't work everywhere and people shouldn't expect that. But we do have Rockingham, Cockburn maybe Yanchep; there are areas of protected water along the metropolitan beach."

Mr Barnett said the nets would not protect surfers, boaters or divers on reefs.

"That is why we've taken the decision to extend the hours of helicopter patrols because of course you can spot from the air if there's a large shark and the alert can be given."

Helicopter patrols would be extended to cover the school holiday period eight weeks earlier than they previously began and weekends and public holidays before daily patrols began for summer.

The Greens MLA Lynn MacLaren said the net-style enclosure trialled at Dunsborough was ineffective and had serious flaws.

"Numerous eye-witnesses, photographs and an independent study by a marine biologist in February vouch for the fact that there were sizeable holes in the Dunsborough enclosure, big enough for an adult human to swim through," Ms MacLaren said.

"Trapped marine life such as rays and shovelnosed sharks were found inside the enclosure, having floated in over the top in large swells."

Mr Barnett said there were no holes in the net.

"At one stage it was noticed that part of the net was not on the sea floor and that was corrected. "That was due to the topography of the sea floor, the net was not holed," he said.

"There's been a minimum of marine growth, no by catch occurred… so as far as I'm concerned that is a successful trial."

Mr Barnett said the trial had cost around $186,000.

"We've stopped the drum line program so the savings from that have been put into nets," he said.

"I'm hopeful that we might be able to have the enclosed swimming area at Busselton sometime during summer."