WA unlikely to get shark nets

Shark nets will probably not be adopted at West Australian beaches, with Premier Colin Barnett saying swimmers can feel safe between the flags in patrolled areas.

Barnett's comments came as a 34-year-old surfer recovered in Royal Perth Hospital after being attacked by a shark in a remote part of the Gascoyne region, 140km north of Carnarvon.

A report commissioned by the state Government was "not particularly encouraging" about shark nets, Barnett said.

"I have said, given the numbers of attacks and another one yesterday, that we will look at everything that is used to minimise the risk of shark attack including shark nets," he told ABC radio.

"A shark net is in fact a shark trap ... and people have very mixed views about shark nets when they see it in that context, but there are other things that are being looked at."

Barnett said his Government would consider easing restrictions on the number of sharks professional fisherman could catch and culling large great whites that lurk close to swimming areas.

The Government was also looking at providing surf lifesaving clubs with more equipment to help them to protect people in the water, andhad increased shark patrols.

Barnett said he believed shark numbers had risen.

Scientists say that sharks are also now bigger. Professor Shaun Collin from the University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute, said: "There's no doubt that the bans have allowed the sharks to grow to greater maturity."

He thinks removing them from the protected list would be a mistake. "The big question is why there have been so many attacks in the past year. There's been something about Western Australia in that time that has brought them closer and that's what we need to find out."

- AAP, Observer