Research & Initiatives

The Shark Monitoring Network (SMN) is one of the largest and most sophisticated research and public safety projects of its kind, providing vital public safety warnings that may help save peoples’ lives.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development currently monitors more than 860 acoustically tagged sharks – including 258 white sharks.

This map allows you to explore data collected from the Shark Monitoring Network (SMN) and the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN). You can use it to investigate how many tagged sharks (and other fish) have been detected near you, when they were detected and the pathways they use to travel around the coast.

The Western Australian Government has provided up to $500,000 in operational costs to support a Clever Buoy trial at City Beach, in the Town of Cambridge. The trial was conducted from December 2016 to 31 March 2017.

View videos showing tagged shark movements around the Western Australian coast, which have been developed from tag detection data collected by acoustic receivers deployed through the Shark Monitoring Network, the Ocean Tracking Network and the Department of Fisheries’ Cockburn Sound Array.

The Western Australian Government committed $1.9 million to support the Applied Research Program – Shark Hazard Mitigation which has sponsored eight research projects since December 2012. 

Research is a crucial element of the Western Australian Government’s shark hazard mitigation strategy. The following research reports have been published as the Government and its partners continue to investigate ways to enhance and expand existing shark hazard mitigation measures. 

To help understand how the fear of sharks might be affecting community behaviour, the WA Government recently completed a major research project involving 768 Western Australians.