one at Maroubra — perished after great white shark attacks in a single week. The meshing was never designed to enclose a piece of water, as barrier nets couldn't survive a surf zone. Instead, it was designed to catch large sharks as they swam within range of the surf. At first, the catch was huge; over 600 sharks in the first year of operation, off just a few Sydney beaches. But over time, even without adjusting for the spread of the program across almost all Sydney beaches and into Wollongong and Newcastle, the catch declined. Today's New South Wales meshing annual average catch is 143 sharks, many of which are released alive. Nets were first deployed off certain beaches in KwaZulu-Natal (formerly Natal), South Africa, in 1952. Shark nets were also used off Dunedin, New Zealand for roughly 40 years, and were removed in 2011. The nets were found to be detrimental to the environment; 700 non-target species were killed. No shark attacks have occurred since their removal. As of 2018, shark nets are used in New South Wales, Queensland and KwaZulu-Natal. In August 2018, it was announced that the nets in northern New South Wales would be removed, but that the nets in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong would stay. The New South Wales Green party said they wanted all shark nets removed. Effectiveness Ongoing shark control programs have been very successful in reducing the incidence of shark attack at the protected beaches. In the years from 1900 to 1937, 13 people died off New South Wales surf beaches after shark attacks; over the next 72 years, the death rate fell to eight, only one of which was at a meshed beach. This in a period when the New South Wales human population rose from 1.4 million to seven million — and when more people began going to the beach. In Queensland, there has been only one fatal attack on a controlled beach since 1962, compared to 27 fatal attacks between 1919 and 1961. Statistics from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries indicate that before nets were introduced in New South Wales in 1936 there was an average of one fatal shark attack every year. There has been only one fatal attack on a protected beach since then and that was in 1951. Similarly, between 1943 and 1951 the South African city of Durban experienced seven fatal attacks