News & Alerts

Department of Fisheries officers will continue to patrol the water in the vicinity of Surf Break Lookout, Falcon, near Mandurah, on Thursday following a serious shark incident in the area on Tuesday.

Officers captured a white shark, estimated to be 4.2 metres in length, on Wednesday afternoon, close to the area where a man was seriously injured while surfing on Tuesday.

Beaches in the area remain closed until further notice and swimmers are advised to stay out of the water.

Department Officers are also conducting beach patrols and the Department continues to monitor the situation.

The Department says the captured white shark has expired on the line, and the carcass was disposed of at sea, after measurements and samples were taken.

A white shark has been caught in the vicinity of Surf Break Lookout, Falcon, near Mandurah, following a serious shark incident in the area yesterday.

Department of Fisheries’ officers deployed capture gear within the vicinity of the incident at first light this morning, and later captured a white shark, between 3 and 4.5 metres in size after 3pm this afternoon.

Beaches in the area have been closed.  Swimmers are being advised to stay out of the water.

An assessment of the operational requirements for managing the shark carcass is currently underway.

Department of Fisheries will set shark capture gear at SurfBreak Lookout, near Falcon, this morning after a shark incident on Tuesday afternoon resulted in a determination that a serious threat to public safety exists.

Situation:

• A man received injuries, and is being treated at Royal Perth Hospital after a serious shark bite incident which occurred before 4pm on Tuesday.
• An order has been issued by the Director General of the Department of Fisheries to deploy capture gear in the vicinity of the incident, to fish for the shark from first light today.
• Given the nature of the injuries and the location of the incident, it is likely that a white shark, of 3-metres or more in size, is responsible.
• The City of Mandurah has closed the beach.

Alert level:
A shark ADVICE has been issued due to part of a whale carcass being reported at Boodjidup Beach, South of Prevelly. 

Situation:

• The partial carcass was reported by Department of Parks and Wildlife at 11:20am this morning.
• It is possible the decomposing piece of carcass will act as an attractant that could lead to sharks coming close in to shore along this stretch of coast.
• While it’s not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Western Australian coast throughout the year, people should exercise additional caution in the area, until the whale carcass can be removed.

Alert level:
A shark WARNING has been issued for Graveyards Beach near the Town of Exmouth after an interaction with a shark was reported today (20 May 2016).

Situation:
The Department of Fisheries has investigated the report of a 3.5 to 4 metre shark that interacted with a surfer at approximately 5pm yesterday (19 May). The surfer reported he was alone, when he encountered what he described as a large tiger shark that surfaced beneath his surf board, causing him to fall into the water.

The surfer was not injured.

UPDATE on 1 June, 2016:
Services have been restored to the 2.5kms off Mullaloo, the 3.5kms off Trigg and the 1.5kms off Scarborough Shark Monitoring Network receivers. The network is now fully operational.

Alert level:
A shark ADVICE has been issued for Western Australian water users due to a partial outage in the shark notification system.

Situation:

• Fisheries advise tagged shark detections from three off-shore Shark Monitoring Network satellite-linked receivers are currently offline.
• The locations of the receivers affected are: 2.5kms off Mullaloo, 3.5kms off Trigg and 1.5kms off Scarborough.
• The Department is investigating the fault. The receiver located 2.5kms off Mullaloo is off-line and the other two are intermittently operational – requiring further investigation. Water users should assume that all three are off-line until the fault has been resolved.
• The remainder of the system is fully operational, including all in-shore receivers.

• $1.54 million to continue world-class shark hazard mitigation program
• $400,000 for more beach enclosures

Alert level:
For the ANZAC long weekend and the rest of April, the Department of Fisheries is renewing its shark warning in WA’s South West, for the area between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, due to continuing shark activity and sightings in recent weeks.

Situation:

• It is possible that the number of sightings in this area may increase the likelihood of encountering a shark in this area.
• The change in activity may be due to a possible change in environmental conditions as schools of salmon have been reported in the immediate and adjacent areas in recent weeks.

Alert level:
With school holidays beginning this weekend, the Department of Fisheries is renewing and extending its shark warnings to the area between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin after an increased number of shark sightings in recent weeks.

Situation:

• It is possible that the number of sightings in this area may increase the likelihood of encountering a shark in this area.
• The change in activity may be due to a possible change in environmental conditions as schools of salmon have been reported in the immediate and adjacent areas in the last few weeks.

• ​Research data released from nearly 180,000 detections of tagged sharks
• Tagged sharks monitored by satellite-linked and data-recording receivers
• Information helps to build picture of shark movements in WA