Drumlines to be set up on the most visited spots on the coastline
Among the solutions considered to prevent new attacks, La Réunion selected the most crual solution – the killing of sharks – driven under the State authority. Since the beginning of the Cape Shark 2 program one year ago, 73 sharks were caught by drumlines on popular coastlines’spots of Saint-Leu, Saint-Pierre, Trois Bassins, St. Paul and Étang Salé where drumlines have been set up. 45 bull sharks, 27 tiger sharks and one great white shark, listed as a CITES protected species, were shot dead.
The program started earlier than expected following a shark attack in Le Port on a surfer whose arm has been torn off.
Do the bull sharks settle down on the West and South coasts?
Estimated at EUR 700 000, Cape Shark 2 program has counted 140 boat trips at sea spread on a year that is to say two to three times a week.
According to this assessment, it is therefore the bull sharks, the main attacks’ perpetrators, which are most present along the western and South coast of La Reunion. 20 sharks of this species have been caught in Baie Saint-Paul, 13 in the Roches Noires and 9 in Saint-Pierre.
According to environmentalists, sharks are good “scapegoats” who do not protest and slaughter is certainly easier than tackling the real problems such as freshwater inputs loaded with various nutrients and pollutants. In the results of CHARC program conducted by the IRD, the presence Bulldogs in front of the “ravines” can be explained by the freshwater inputs and what they carry. Pollution from freshwaters could be a serious hypothesis to the spate of shark attacks.
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