News & Alerts

Alert level:
A shark ADVICE has been issued due to a large whale carcass that has washed on to the Spoilbank at Port Hedland.

Situation:

• The whale carcass was reported by the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
• It is possible the decomposing carcass will continue to act as an attractant that could lead to sharks coming close in to shore along this stretch of coast.
• While it is not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Western Australian coast throughout the year, people should exercise additional caution while the carcass remains in the vicinity.

Alert level:
A shark ADVICE has been issued due to a rotting whale that has washed up on a beach about three kilometres north of Myalup townsite in the Shire of Harvey.

Situation:

• It is possible the badly decomposing carcass will continue to 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 while the carcass remains on the beach.

A shark WARNING has been issued for the area between Port Kennedy and Hillarys on the Perth Metropolitan Coast after an increased number of reported shark detections.

UPDATE AT 17:41 hours 27/07/2015: Fisheries advise services to Shark Monitoring Network receivers located at Scarborough and 2.5km off Mullaloo have resumed as normal..

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

Situation:
• Two Shark Monitoring Network receivers – one located at Scarborough and the second located 2.5kms off Mullalloo – are currently offline.
• All other receivers in the network remain fully operational.

• Sorrento Beach in the north and Middleton Beach in Albany to get funding for new swimming enclosures
• In addition to enclosures already funded for Dunsborough and Busselton
• Brings the total number of State Government-funded enclosures in WA to four

Update: 

The Department of Fisheries is currently assisting WA Police with a possible shark incident involving a 37 year-old Denmark woman, at Ocean Beach off Western Australia’s south coast this morning.

It’s understood the woman was surfing with her husband when her board was struck by a large marine creature, believed to be a shark. The woman has sustained minor injuries.

Department of Fisheries scientists have assessed the pictures of the damage to the board provided by WA Police and give the advice that, while it is not possible to provide a conclusive determination, it is very likely the damage was caused by a shark. There is no evidence, however, to suggest size or species

• ​Three State Government-funded research projects on shark detection and deterrents recently completed
• Existing and novel shark deterrents tested on a range of species in the wild
• Development of advanced visual shark detection system

With an Easter long weekend and school holidays commencing, people out on the water are reminded to stay alert and safe in the marine environment and to keep a check on the shark sighting and detection reports; available through the SharkSmart website and the Surf Life Saving WA (SLSWA) Twitter service.

Department of Fisheries is advising water users in the Bunbury area to exercise additional caution after the stranding of a number of long-finned pilot whales in the Bunbury Harbour vicinity today.

Fisheries advise Shark Monitoring Network Services have resumed as normal following a reported outage earlier today.  

No shark detections were missed during the outage.