Shark listening devices roll out in NSW

Listening devices have been installed at Ballina and Byron Bay to help protect beachgoers from sharks as part of a $16m NSW government strategy.

Listening devices have been installed to protect beachgoers at two northern NSW beaches from tagged sharks, but local surfers don't want to be part of an "experiment".

The devices will provide real-time updates of the movements of tagged sharks.

The 4G listening stations are at Sharpes Beach, Ballina and Clarkes Beach, Byron Bay, and are the first of 20 to be installed along the NSW coastline.

If a tagged shark swims within 500m of the device, an alert will be issued with the location.

The new technology follows the NSW government's roll-out of drum lines that hook and tag sharks before releasing them further out to sea.

But with more than one third of all NSW attacks occurring on Ballina's beaches this year, locals want more action from the Baird government.

Ballina local David Drinkwater said there's no proof that tagging technology is going to work.

"We don't want to be the experiment," he told the Seven Network.

"The only action that's really been taken by the government is to fund the Department of Industries to tag sharks which is not real-time," he said.

"It's great from a scientific perspective but when it comes to people's safety, which is paramount, that's not happening."

Ballina Mayor David Wright said the council is trying to fast-track the delivery of eco-barriers manufactured in Western Australia.

"They'll be here in January," he said.

The government has promised to install the mesh swimming enclosures at Ballina's Lighthouse beach this summer with the "eco-barrier" stretching from seabed to surface and shoreline to shoreline.

The government is funding daily aerial searches of the waters from Byron Bay to Evans Head.

There have been at least 14 shark attacks recorded in NSW this year, nine along a 70km stretch of coast from Evans Head to Byron Bay.

Fifty-one beaches in NSW are protected by shark nets with the furthest north being in the Hunter region.