Overview

• The government has unveiled a four-year, $88 million plan to deploy shark nets, baited drum lines and drone surveillance at additional Queensland beaches.
• Conservationists, led by Humane World for Animals, are preparing legal challenges arguing the expansion breaches EPBC Act exemptions and threatens protected species.
• Last year’s shark control measures caught 1,639 animals, fewer than half sharks, including 22 whales and dolphins, 37 turtles and 46 rays.
• Marine experts say the reliance on lethal nets and drum lines is outdated, ineffective and politically motivated rather than evidence-based.
• The program’s grandfathered exemption under the EPBC Act could be revoked if assessments find significant harm to threatened marine life.