Shark nets protecting Dunedin's beaches remain in the sights
of at least one Dunedin city councillor.
Cr Richard Thomson has called for a staff report on the
appropriateness of the nets, including their costs, any
possible environmental effect and new scientific knowledge
relating to the use of nets.
The report was requested at the end of Wednesday's community
development committee meeting.
Cr Thomson's move follows an unsuccessful attempt last month
by several councillors to have funding for the shark nets
removed from the council's draft budget for 2011-12.
Cr Kate Wilson suggested the move during the council's
pre-draft annual plan hearings, and won support from Cr
Thomson, who said the nets created "the most enormous placebo
effect you could possibly have".
However, Cr Wilson's suggestion - which could have saved
$40,000 each year - was defeated in a 6-7 vote, after Crs Syd
Brown and Neil Collins argued for the nets to be retained.
The 100m-long nets were positioned off St Kilda, St Clair and
Brighton beaches each summer, after five attacks, three of
them fatal, in the space of seven years in the 1960s and
'70s.
About 700 sharks had been caught in the nets since council
records began in 1977.
- chris.morris@odt.co.nz
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