Minister for Primary Industries Lands and Water Niall Blair has announced that the State’s South Coast will receive five VR4G listening stations, as part of the NSW Government’s $16 million Shark Management Strategy to better detect and deter sharks.
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Listening stations will be installed at Kiama, Sussex Inlet, Mollymook, Batemans Bay and Merimbula on the South Coast.
“When it comes to preventing shark attacks we need to give beachgoers better information, and the fact that listening stations provide real time information of shark’s movements means people can make informed decisions before getting in to the water,” he said.
“Listening stations will now be located up and down the state’s coastline and are just one of the emerging technologies we are using to better detect and deter sharks on the NSW Coast,” Minister Blair said.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast Gareth Ward has said it is great to see so many South Coast beaches receiving this state-of-the-art technology.
“The installation of the listening stations at these very popular beach and tourist destinations is a big win for these communities and will give beachgoers that extra bit of confidence before hitting the water,” he said.
“I’m especially pleased to be here today with Brett Connellan who is a brave shark-attack survivor. I’m so pleased that Brett supports today’s announcement and I hope the research we undertake gives us a greater understanding of sharks so that we can better manage our interaction with them,” Mr Ward said.
The purpose-built listening stations, work by registering a tagged shark which swims within approximately 500 metres of the station and an alert is sent to Twitter @NSWSharkSmart and the NSW Government’s Shark Smart app.
All listening stations will be in the water this summer and exact coordinates will be subject to coastal engineering and in consultation with local surf life saving clubs.
Ten listening stations are already in place between Tweed and Forster, on the State’s North Coast. To date, 29 sharks and 88 bull sharks have been tagged in a collaborative effort between NSW DPI Shark Biologists and CSIRO.
For more information, please visit the website at: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/sharks/shark-management