A photograph circulating on social media showing a marine animal under a tarp on a Fisheries boat is covering a shark, not a dolphin, as activists against Western Australia's controversial shark cull suggest.
A spokesman for the Department of Premier and Cabinet said the catch was a shark, not a dolphin.
Greens spokeswoman Lynn MacLaren said a surf skier saw a juvenile dolphin near the drum lines off Leighton Beach on Thursday and followed the animal for about 100m.
"About 20 minutes later, the surf skier witnessed officers on a Fisheries boat pulling something that she thought might be the dolphin aboard," Ms MacLaren said.
Activists went to the area, but when they arrived, the animal was covered in tarpaulin and the Fisheries boat sped out to sea where it could not be followed, Ms MacLaren said.
Under the shark kill policy, all bull, tiger and great white sharks longer than three metres that are caught on drum lines within one kilometre of parts of the WA coast are being shot dead and discarded at sea.
