6 days Ago By Hayden Smith
Soon after taking up surfing, Manue Daniels realised why it was "part of the Australian lifestyle". "Being out there, focusing on the waves, it was very relaxing at the time," said Ms Daniels, a Paris native who now calls Esperance home. There was a time when she would regularly chase waves in the region's cool waters, on Western Australia's remote and windswept south-east, 700 kilometres from Perth.
But that was 10 years ago. Now, at the forefront of Ms Daniels' mind is one haunting statistic: of the last five fatal attacks by great white sharks in Western Australia, four have been off the Esperance coastline. For Manue Daniels, surfing is not what it used to be.
Like many others in her adopted home town, she now thinks long and hard before entering the ocean. "I definitely don't surf as much as I used to." Four fatalities in eight years Among surfers, theories swirl about shark behaviour and strategies to prevent attacks.
Leading shark scientists have been , which were declared vulnerable to extinction by the federal government in 1999. The vast majority of great white shark attacks are in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. However, according to the Australian Shark Incident Database, no fatal shark attacks were formally recorded in the Esperance region between 1896 and 2017.
Laeticia Brouwer, 17, died after being attacked at Kelp Beds, Esperance, in 2017. It has been one month since 37-year-old tourist at Wharton Beach. In broad daylight at one of the region's most popular beaches, the midday attack left witnesses in shock and many in the community frustrated.
While analysis of Mr Payne's surfboard is yet to formally confirm the species involved, it is widely believed that a large great white shark fatally attacked the Geelong resident. After a cluster of tragedies, calls are growing for more proactive shark research and mitigation in one of the country's most "high-risk" locations. Boosting local response capacity On a hot morning in late 2020, a massive great white shark brought Perth's iconic Cottesloe Beach to a standstill.
Swimmers were sent from the water as authorities used a baited drumline to catch and tag the 5.3-metre shark, which was then released away from crowds of people. Veteran abalone diver and Esperance local Marc Payne described this scenario as a "classic example" of what he believes should also be happening in his home town.
Marc Payne says the government needs to publish its shark monitoring data. Esperance's population of about 14,000 swells considerably over the peak tourist season. "We are seeing sharks here that are going up and down [the coast] all day," he said.
It has long been the position of the Esperance Ocean Safety and Support Group, which formed after that the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) should take "immediate action", through the deployment of non-lethal SMART drumlines, against "problem white sharks". In the event of a shark attack, the group wants DPIRD to use SMART drumlines to capture "any white sharks in the area" and "use discretion regarding the action to be taken to protect ocean users from any ongoing threat". In 2021, the McGowan government provided funding for a swimming enclosure in the Esperance Bay.
A rebate of $200 is also available for WA residents who purchase an approved shark deterrent device. Wharton Beach was closed after the fatal attack in March. Like many coastal communities, local opinions can differ when it comes to shark mitigation strategies, including the use of SMART drumlines.
In 2021, conservationists applauded the WA government's decision to after only two white sharks were caught in two years. But Mr Payne, an ocean safety group committee member and coordinator of the SMART drumline trial, said the current response to shark attacks at Esperance beaches was inadequate. "Sea rescue, police and other responding groups come and do their jobs," he said.
"But there's basically nothing happening other than closing the beach." Esperance's beaches are world famous. Research in 'high-risk' area Central to Western Australia's shark mitigation strategy is its tagging and monitoring program.
In WA, "tagged" sharks can be detected by a network of acoustic receivers – several of which are strategically placed along the Esperance coast – with beachgoers alerted via the Shark Smart app and website, as well as land-based sirens. DPIRD conducts white shark tagging each year near Garden Island, about 5km off the Perth coast, when "white sharks are attracted to snapper aggregations", and throughout the Recherche Archipelago off Esperance during summer. Shark receivers, such as the one at Kelp Beds, are along the Esperance coast.
Tagging is also undertaken "near whale carcasses when possible". A DPIRD spokesperson said 206 white sharks had been tagged in WA waters since 2009, with more than 100 tagged over the past five years. However, the figures account for only a fraction of the great white shark population.
The CSIRO estimates that there are between 760 and 2,250 adult white sharks in Australia's south-western shark population, according to a 2018 study. The east coast population is believed to be between 470 and 1,030. Esperance surfer Andrew Sharpe was killed by a white shark in October 2020.
Mr Payne said increasing the capacity to research and respond to great white sharks in a "high-risk" area such as Esperance would not only improve knowledge of the enigmatic species, but potentially save lives. "We've got all these great whites on our coasts and yet the tagging program is out at remote islands and remote locations, miles away from our coast," he said. The WA government last published a comprehensive report on the shark monitoring program in 2016.
Mr Payne said it was time for the latest tagging and tracking data to be made public. "We haven't seen any fisheries research data for almost a decade," he said. "Let's look at that data and let's see how we can use that to help respond to these problems.
" Ron Chambers says a conversation needs to be had about shark mitigation in the region. The controversial was recently gazetted in waters off the Esperance Coast. Local stakeholders are now lobbying for a marine research facility in the town.
When it comes to shark mitigation, Esperance leaders are also pushing for "a discussion" with the government, community groups and relevant experts. "We want to talk about whether the current system is working," Esperance Shire president Ron Chambers said. News of dangerous animal encounters tend to travel very fast in Australia, but sometimes what follows can compound the mental anguish of survivors.
A DPIRD spokesperson said a new report on tagged shark data was expected to be delivered in 2025–26. WA Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis was contacted for comment. 'Almost looked like an orca' Esperance surfing instructor Brent "Mossy" Moss counts himself lucky to have had no "close calls" during his many years on the south coast.
But one day while in the water at Fourth Beach, a short drive west of town, a "rather large shark" caught his attention. Brent Moss says enrolments have decreased over the past decade. "I saw him coming from about 30 or 40 metres away .
.. enough [distance] for me to catch a wave and get out of his way," he said.
Mr Moss said the spectre of sharks had contributed to a decline in surf school enrolments over the past decade. "I was at times doing four lessons a day ..
. [now] I'm down to doing two lessons a day in the holidays," he said. The beach is what keeps many Esperance locals in the region.
The award-winning surfer backed calls for greater tagging and research efforts to better understand shark populations and behaviour, particularly in Esperance. "Between Adelaide and Esperance, we seem to be getting quite a few [shark] numbers – and we have for years," he said. Marc Payne says he has encountered many great white sharks throughout his career.
But the first time he saw one up close, as a young abalone diver in the late 1990s, was an "absolutely traumatising" experience. Marc Payne says the government needs to focus more on Esperance in its shark research. Mr Payne said in recent years he had grown fearful for his children's safety.
"I've got two sons and a daughter, they all love the ocean," he said. "I'm scared ..
. and I don't think we should be in this situation.".
