- A timeline of shark attacks on WA beaches
- Esperance shark attack: Bunbury man Sean Pollard suffers serious injuries
- Esperance shark attack: Did Fisheries catch the right sharks?
- Shark attack victim recovering well in hospital
- Esperance residents rally around shark attack victim
- Bunbury rallies around shark attack victim Sean Pollard
The West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has been criticised for providing incorrect details about great white sharks.
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In an online chat with The West Australian on Tuesday, Mr Barnett was quizzed about the government's action of destroying two great white sharks following a shark attack off the Esperance coast last week to which he replied that great white sharks were "not a protected species".
However, according to a 2013 report by the Department of Sustainability, Environment and Water, Population and Communities titled Recovery Plan for the White Shark, the great white shark "has been fully protected in Australia under Commonwealth and state legislation".
Mr Barnett was further questioned as to why authority was sought and granted to kill two great white sharks after surfer Sean Pollard was attacked "when eye witness accounts and the victim himself implicated only bronze whalers in the incident".
Mr Barnett said the scientific evidence showed it was likely a great white shark involved in the incident in Esperance.
Sea Shepherd spokeswoman Natalie Banks told Fairfax Media said it was "disappointing" that the Premier appeared so "ill-informed".
"Following the rogue shark comments, I personally am quite worried our premier doesn't understand the conservation status of great white sharks".
The Department of Premier and Cabinet has been contacted for comment.
The Department of Fisheries has also revealed that one of the two sharks that died after being caught on drum lines deployed following the attack on Sean Pollard on October 2 had been tagged as part of the WA shark monitoring network.
"The white shark caught off the coast of Esperance on Thursday was tagged by Department of Fisheries' staff with an internal acoustic transmitter in Cockburn Sound [approximately 3 kilometres off Kwinana] on October 5, 2012," a spokeswoman said.
The department would not provide details about how much it cost to tag individual sharks, instead saying "the expenditure on the Shark Monitoring Network project to date is approximately $2 million.
"This includes undertaking tagging, and the deployment and maintenance of both data recording, and satellite linked receivers".
