Sustainability, the Environment & Safe Swimming Areas
While protecting swimmers is our motivating purpose, we also know it can be done in a way that has very little impact on the marine environment.
Our solution is marine biologist approved, so you can be sure that reducing any potential negative impacts on marine life were top of mind. The three key areas that the enclosure needed to address were:
- Not allowing by-catch
- Low installation impact
- Allowing the movement of seagrass wracks.
We’re pleased to say that we’ve been able to tick all three of these boxes with every netted enclosure, right from the very beginning.
No By-catch Recorded
The initial trial enclosure installed at Dunsborough reported that the design we use for our netted enclosures did not result in any other marine life becoming entangled.
Some of our barrier nets have been installed at locations for nine years now, and over this time there have been no reports of the accidental capture, trapping, injury, or death of or to marine organisms as a result of the installed shark barrier nets.
The mesh structure is large, highly visible, and relatively rigid. This makes the potential for entanglement extremely unlikely. The netting is sized so that marine mammals or reptiles are far too large to get caught, while fish will avoid the visual cues associated with the colours and thickness of the material.
It is important not to confuse the barrier nets we are promoting with the Shark Nets used on the East Coast of Australia. In NSW, a larger, looser mesh-size net is deployed, under the water with the specific aim of catching sharks. Additionally, the net does not create a protected enclosure for swimmers. Studies have shown that the nets actually end up catching & killing many other none targets species like dolphins, turtles, and stingrays.
Low Installation Impact
Netted enclosures to protect against sharks, are most often installed at popular and well-loved beaches. Plus, the WA coastline is a beautiful and fragile place.
So, when it comes to the design of swimming enclosures, we believe that it’s important to reduce the environmental disturbance at the time of installation, as well as get the installation done as quickly and cleanly as possible to reduce the amount of time that access to these public open spaces need to be closed.
Sea Grass Wrack Movement
Seagrass wracks building up against a shark barrier.
The ocean environment is constantly moving – the ebb and flow of tides, as well as current flows, swell patterns, and storms all create changes under the surface.
Seagrass forms large clumps or “wracks” along the ocean floor, and a barrier, like a netted enclosure, will cause the seagrass to build up along it.
This interrupts the normal passage of seagrass through the bays and coves.
Also, without a way of moving past the barrier, the build-up will increase rapidly, placing pressure and strain on the barrier, and increasing the rate of wear on the barrier.
We have designed a mechanism that allows the seagrass wrack to pass through the barrier when a certain level of pressure is achieved, thus reducing the barrier’s interference with the ocean’s natural movements.
The shark net does therefore provide a guaranteed safe enclosure in which bathers can enter the water knowing they are safe from a shark attack. It also provides beach users with the choice to enter the water at a safe location alternative to a beach where there is no protection.