After yet another serious shark attack in Western Australia, the opposition says people need to take more responsibility for themselves when surfing and swimming off remote beaches.
Sean Pollard, 23, lost a hand and part of an arm when he was attacked by a shark while surfing near Esperance on Thursday, and in response, the Fisheries Department killed two white pointers it caught on drumlines.
It has since been reported that Mr Pollard may actually have been attacked by two bronze whalers.
Opposition leader Mark McGowan said the pointers' deaths were regrettable and he did not support culling sharks.
He said people should be aware of the enhanced risk of a shark attack off remote WA beaches and get out of the water if they saw a shark.
"The government can't solve every problem and there seems to be an attitude in some sections that it's the government's responsibility," Mr McGowan said.
"I think people need to take responsibility and you need to be very careful when you swim or surf or dive at remote parts of WA.
Mr McGowan said preventative measures could not be introduced everywhere along the state's 21,000km coastline but tagging, satellite technology, shark shields and educating people about the risk were part of dealing with the situation.
Premier Colin Barnett said it was necessary to kill the two white pointers because they posed an imminent threat to public safety and said is was a coincidence that a Fisheries vessel was in the area at the time.
He said the government was looking into a rapid response strategy in both the South West and Perth.
"The threat is there and sadly, yesterday just demonstrated how likely a shark attack can happen," Mr Barnett said. He said the young victim was very brave, but was lucky to survive.
"Perth beaches are probably as safe as we can reasonably make them (but) the South West and the southern coastline is a different matter."
Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren has criticised the decision to use drumlines to catch and kill the sharks when the beach was closed, with no one in the water.
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