Western Australia’s fisheries department has trapped and killed a large great white shark in baited drum lines close to the site where a surfer suffered life-threatening injuries in an attack.
The authorities took samples from the 4.2m-long shark to see whether it was responsible for the attack which left a 29-year-old fly-in fly-out worker, Ben Gerring, fighting for his life.
Fisheries confirmed in a statement that the shark was caught on drum lines set following the attack and died on the line before fisheries staff arrived. The carcass was “disposed of at sea, after measurements and samples were taken”, it said.
However the samples did not include the jaws of the shark, which can be checked against bite marks on Gerring’s surfboard.
A Fisheries spokeswoman told Guardian Australia that “given the resources available, there was no capacity to remove and retain jaws prior to disposal,” and that fisheries staff determined that they were not required for investigative purposes.
A later statement from Fisheries suggested that the shark was captured because it fit the criteria of a hazardous shark - which is tiger, white, or bull shark more than 3m long - and not because it could be shown to be responsible for the attack.
“While we are currently unable to confirm if the shark was involved in the incident - on the basis that white sharks of this size have been known to have bitten people – often with fatal consequences, the decision was made to take the shark on the basis it has mitigated a potential threat,” the statement said.
Sharks suspected to be involved in an attack are usually brought in for an autopsy by the department. In 2014, the carcasses of two sharks believed to have been involved in an attack that removed part of both arms of Bunbury man Sean Pollard were trucked 700km from Esperance to Perth to be examined, but the findings were inconclusive.
Lynn MacLaren, the WA Greens MP, criticised fisheries for not conducting a formal autopsy on the shark, telling a RTR FM in Perth on Thursday that it was “usually required to prove that a shark was involved in a particular attack”.
“They went out, they caught a very, very large shark, possibly a great white, and that shark was possibly in the area a day after a surfer was attacked,” MacLaren said.
Natalie Banks, national shark campaign manager for Sea Shepherd, said the policy was “similar to going to a park 18 hours after there has been a dog bite and just killing a dangerous dog”.
Fisheries has said it would not set drum lines again on Thursday, unless another shark was sighted.
Gerring remains in hospital with his family at his side after the attack at the popular Gearies break at Falcon Beach, 80km south of Perth, on Tuesday.
Gerring’s family thanked everyone involved in his rescue and treatment at Royal Perth Hospital. His fiancee, Jasmine Boyer, flew down from a WA mine.
“The bravery and efforts of his rescuers and the care provided by the doctors and nurses has been amazing,” the family said in a statement.
“We would also like to thank family and friends for their messages of love and support, they are greatly appreciated.”
Fisheries department regional manager Tony Cappelluti said the controversial drum lines were set on Wednesday morning as per the WA government’s serious threat policy.
However, given the speed that sharks can swim the animal involved in the attack could have travelled far from the area.
The use of traps is controversial and was widely criticised on Wednesday, including by MacLaren and University of Sydney lecturer, Christopher Neff, who said killing individual sharks did not make the ocean safer.
Cappelluti defended the fisheries’ warning systems which was questioned after it emerged that the department had known there was a large shark in the area where gerring was attacked on Tuesday morning.
Its Smart Shark website and the WA Twitter account of Surf Life Saving had warned that a 3.5m-long shark was spotted about three kilometres south of where Gerring was attacked.
But it was up to people to check those websites before entering the water, Cappelluti said.
Shocked and distressed fellow surfers and friends of Gerring, including those who pulled him out of the water, gathered on Wednesday morning at the closed beach.
Gerring was described as a keen big wave surfer who had paddled out further and screamed for help before being dragged under the water.
His friend, the Mandurah Boardriders Club president, Brian Williams, was preparing to go for a surf when he noticed a commotion with about 15 surfers rushing back to shore and “all hell broke loose” as a couple of men came out with Mr Gerring propped up on a board.
“They jumped to work straight away, it was pretty horrific to see someone you know in that predicament,” he told ABC radio.
“There are images there that are going to be pretty hard to get out of your mind for a while ... I’ve spoken to a lot of the guys that are struggling at the moment with the scenes they saw.”
Williams described the efforts of those who had bravely rescued Gerring as heroic.
