It comes after a man was fatally attacked by a shark at a Sydney beach with a shark net on the weekend.
The trial was proposed in response to reports of increasing marine life deaths and safety concerns for swimmers.
Nets
In NSW, shark nets are used at over 50 beaches from September to April.
Nets (also called ‘shark meshing’) were first introduced in NSW in 1937, as a way to limit dangerous shark interactions with humans. However, they don’t completely block sharks from accessing beaches.
Government data seen by animal welfare agency Humane Society International in May showed 90% of animals caught in NSW nets over the 2024/25 summer were not sharks.
Net ban
The NSW Government had planned to trial removing shark nets at three beaches in the Central Coast, Waverley and Northern Beaches council areas in 2025. The trial hadn’t started yet.
It has now paused its plans after a large shark killed a man at Long Reef Beach in northern Sydney.
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Long Reef Beach did not have a shark net, but nearby Dee Why did.
Minns told a press conference on Sunday: “Given this terrible event, we believe the right thing to do is to wait for the investigation to come back about how this happened, what happened and the circumstances surrounding it.”
Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce told ABC radio on Monday that shark nets “don’t provide a full netted safety guarantee for anyone swimming at any beach.”
There is no proposed time frame for when the shark net trial will be re-introduced.
Alternative
SMART (Shark-Management-Alert-in-Real-Time) drumlines are baited buoys set around 500 metres from the shore.
When a shark eats the bait it triggers an alert. A team responds within 30 minutes to tag the shark with a tracker and relocate it away from the beach. Swimmers can see updated tracking information about the movements of tagged sharks in their area, via the SharkSmart app.
SMART drumlines are in place near Long Reef Beach.
