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North Coast Surfers Want Limited Shark Cull

Locals call for short-term solution to safeguard community.

Local surfers at a community shark management meeting organised by Le-Ba Boardriders Club in Lennox Head last night have overwhelmingly supported a limited cull of sharks along the North Coast.

200 surfers from Byron Bay to Evans Head reached an overwhelming consensus in backing a so-called ‘controlled management solution’.

The meeting comes after two serious attacks in July, along with six incidents in the past two weeks. The latest coming today at Suffolk Park when a surfer was bumped off his board at approximately 2:15pm in front of the caravan park.

It’s been reported seven sharks have been identified down to their length and markings since regular aerial patrols began by Air T&G Helicopter Services earlier this year.

Professional surfer, Stuart Kennedy, from Lennox Head told Tracks the community wants an immediate solution to an issue that simply isn’t going away.

“Right now we need a short term solution before we start saying goodbye to people,” said Kennedy. “The majority of the [residents] there last night had their hands raised for a cull and there’s a lot of people that don’t like that word, but the perfect term would be ‘short term management’.”

“When we’ve got eight year olds and ten year olds surfing around here and it being one of the hot spots [for sharks] it starts to become a bit of a joke. No one wants to lose their kid or see that happen to an adult.”

But Ballina mayor David Wright told The Northern Star he did not support a cull, at least until more research was done to make sense of the local shark population.

“If we kill the ones that are there, there might be another six or seven next week… until we find out why they are there and why their numbers are increasing [I don’t support a cull].” Mr Wright explained. “Overall people are very concerned… hopefully the DPI will come up and provide some answers.”

“It’s impacting on our Shire… We don’t want people not coming here for Christmas because of the sharks,” added Mr Wright.

Fellow Lennox Head surfer James Wood told Tracks the increased number of attacks, sightings and encounters has the potential to cripple surf tourism in the area.

“I work for Emery surfboards and this is usually the time of year it starts to pick up for orders but no one is surfing. It could really affect the area if they don’t act quickly. If there’s another severe attack or a fatal attack it could be major for surf tourism… We would like those seven sharks removed.”

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