Shark monitoring scheme fails to tag great whites

Photo: GWS off Trigg Beach. 05/08/2012

Posted Thu May 10, 2012 2:20pm AEST

A two month-long program to capture and track sharks has wrapped up in south-west Western Australia, despite failing to tag a single great white.

The shark monitoring project is part of a two-year State Government program aimed at understanding the movements of the elusive great white.

It was introduced just weeks after a shark attack in the south-west where Peter Kurmann, 33, was killed by a shark while diving near Busselton.

The Department of Fisheries' Mike Burgess says no great whites were tagged because they could not be found.

"White sharks are an apex predator, so the natural abundance in the environment is already very low," he said.

"We believe that the sharks are pretty transient along our coastline, so we have to rely on a bit of luck, as well as trying to locate some areas that might prove more useful or successful than others."

The department says it was still a useful exercise, as officers were able to practise capturing and tagging other species of sharks.