New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says the state government's expansion of shark surveillance came in response to a reduction in the number of people visiting beaches amid a spate of shark attacks. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, he said people had been rattled by the recent attacks.
"We now are in a situation where … we seen a reduction in the number of people who are enjoying our beaches and enjoying the Pacific Ocean, even in the winter period. So we know we want to take action … It's not going to be foolproof. We can't promise it won't lead to further shark attacks in the future, but we think it'll mitigate the risk," Minns said.
Minns also reiterated his opposition to culling great white sharks to prevent future incidents, which some sectors of the community had called for following the attack on Leah Stewart at Coogee.
"They're a protected species. They've been a protected species since the 90s, and I'm not convinced it would work. I mean, the distances these sharks travel are massive. It's not like we can knock a few off and send a message to the rest of them …
I think it's a different situation for bull sharks. Generally they're in our estuaries … We're looking particularly at an audit of the number of sharks in Sydney Harbour. We want to keep people safe, particularly when there's a higher number of people in the water," he said.
Shark-spotting drones will patrol NSW beaches year-round as part of the expanded surveillance program aimed at mitigating risk and restoring public confidence.