The West Australian government has ruled out deploying drumlines following a shark attack that killed a teenage girl, saying it will soon detail its shark policy with a focus on personal electronic deterrent devices,
A 17-year-old girl, who was surfing with her father while on a family holiday in Esperance, was bitten on the leg and suffered massive blood loss on Easter Monday.
Fisheries minister Dave Kelly described the girl's death as a tragedy but said drumlines would not be deployed.
"We made it clear in opposition that we don't see the merit in automatically deploying drumlines because they don't actually make our beaches any safer," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Kelly said the new Labor government wanted to promote individual shark deterrents that provided genuine protection.
He said the serious threat policy guidelines were being reviewed and he hoped to announce a new policy in the next few weeks.
"Obviously the whole incident is very raw at this point in time so I don't intend to debate the whole pros and cons of various elements of the shark mitigation policy today," he said.
"It would be great if we were in position where we could actually prevent further incidences rather than debating what you should do after an attack."
Last year while in opposition, Labor made an election promise for a $200,000 subsidy scheme for personal shark deterrent devices.
Leader Mark McGowan said under the proposed trial, 1000 devices such as Shark Shield would be available with a $200 state government subsidy.
Mr McGowan said drones could be trialled at populated beaches but were no use at remote beaches where people surfed.
He was supported at the time by Rick Gerring, whose 29-year-old brother Ben was fatally mauled by a shark at Falcon on May 31, leaving behind his pregnant fiancee.
The new premier has not publicly commented about the latest fatality.
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