Shark fishing will be restricted at beaches from Fremantle to Cottesloe after local residents warned it was attracting the predators to popular swimming beaches.
WARNING: This story contains content that some people may find distressing.
The wife of Paul Millachip, who was killed by a shark at Port Beach in November, welcomed the state government's move, but some swimmers are concerned a loophole will allow shark fishing to continue.
Mrs Millachip, who does not want her first name used, was not impressed with people fishing for sharks at the same beach where her husband was taken.
"It's very sad to be effectively, deliberately enticing sharks into the area where people are trying to swim safely," she said.
Local swim club raised shark fishing alarm
The issue was highlighted when the ABC revealed footage of a tiger shark being dragged backwards up the sand at Port Beach, bleeding and still alive, and metres away from swimmers.
Locals, including swimmers from the Port Beach Polar Bears group, raised the alarm, warning it would lead to another fatal attack.
They said the fishers were using berley containing offal to lure the sharks and then butchering them on the beach.
It is not illegal to fish for tiger sharks off Perth metropolitan beaches, if there are no local government restrictions.
There were no local laws stopping the practice in Fremantle, but the council announced last week it would consider prohibiting shark fishing at all its beaches in response to the growing community concern.
The state government is now also responding to these concerns, banning wire traces on fishing gear, primarily used for shark fishing, from Port Beach to South Cottesloe.
Offenders face $1,000 fines and confiscation of their gear.
Shark fishing 'puts public at risk'
Fisheries Minister Don Punch said it was a matter of putting public safety first.
"It is not appropriate for people to be putting berley and offal material into a swimming beach environment that has the potential to attract larger sharks," Mr Punch said.
"There is a small percentage of people who are acting very irresponsibly in how they're going about shark fishing and that's placing the public at risk and we've acted accordingly."
The minister said the ban could be extended to other beaches if local governments requested it.
Mrs Millachip said she hoped the measures would be adopted up and down the coast.
"And I think these measures are a great step towards achieving that."
Fremantle council mulls own move protect beaches
The City of Fremantle's proposed ban is broader than the government restriction and will still go ahead to protect other beaches.
But Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge said fisheries officers had much greater powers to enforce the new regulation.
"For the safety of our community, for the safety of beach users, this is a much better measure," Ms Fitzhardinge said.
The Port Beach Polar Bears' Geoff Webster said it was pleasing the council and government had acted.
But he had misgivings about the wire trace ban, which he thought could be sidestepped by shark fishers.
"If it includes a clause which prohibits fishing with a steel trace, because fishers can get around that by using heavy duty polymers, nylon or braid," Mr Webster said.
The minister's office sought to reassure swimmers, saying the ban on wire traces was the most immediate way to stop shark fishing.
"If people continue to target large sharks without a wire trace, they run the risk of having shark fishing being prohibited on these beaches," a spokesperson said.
Recfishwest chief executive Andrew Roland noted these were temporary measures until a longer-term and more far-reaching solution could be put in place.
"We look forward to longer term management outcomes that involve proper consultation with a range of stakeholders so we get the balance right and it's maybe something that could be extended further through the metro area," he said.
The government is also considering a total ban on shark fishing at swimming beaches, similar to that which already exists in the Town of Cottesloe.
But for Ms Millachip that would not be enough to get her back in the water.
"I think it would be really good in the Perth metro area if we had more swimming nets," she said.
"I have been in the water only a few times since Paul was attacked, and I've swum inside the shark swimming net at Coogee because that's the only place I felt safe.
"And I would be very reluctant to go back in the water here at Port [beach] now."
