Sustainability, the Environment
& Safe Swimming Areas
from Safer Swimming Australia
Sustainability
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
No By-catch Recorded
The initial trial enclosure installed at Dunsborough reported that the design we use for our swimming enclosures did not result in any other marine life becoming entangled.
Some of our swimming barriers have been installed at locations for over nine years, and during this time, there have been no recorded incidents of marine organisms being accidentally captured, trapped, injured, or killed as a result of the barrier systems. This long-standing safety record reflects our commitment to both swimmer protection and marine conservation.
The mesh structure used in our barriers is large, highly visible, and relatively rigid – features that make entanglement extremely unlikely. The mesh size is deliberately chosen to ensure that marine mammals and reptiles are far too large to become ensnared, while fish tend to avoid the barriers altogether due to the visual cues created by the material’s colour and thickness.
As part of our environmental responsibility, Safer Swimming Australia strictly adheres to the NSW Fish Habitat Compliance requirements, which are designed to protect sensitive marine ecosystems such as seagrass beds, mangroves, and salt marshes. Our beach enclosures are developed in consultation with marine biologists and environmental engineers to ensure minimal ecological disruption. As stated in our commitment to compliance:
“Our beach enclosures are carefully designed and built to ensure the highest levels of safety while having the least possible impact on the environment.”
It is important not to confuse our swimming barriers with the shark nets used along the East Coast of Australia. In NSW, these shark nets are deployed underwater with the specific intent to catch sharks. They feature a larger, looser mesh and do not form a protective enclosure for swimmers. Numerous studies have shown that these nets inadvertently trap and kill a wide range of non-target species, including dolphins, turtles, and stingrays, causing significant harm to marine biodiversity
Low Installation Impact
Swimming 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, 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.