Surf Life Saving WA calls for public to do their part to keep beaches safe after record drowning toll

Lifesavers are warning an increase in coastal developments could see the trend of rising drowning deaths continue. But Surf Life Saving WA says it is ready to do everything it can to stop that from happening as they launched their summer shark patrols on Thursday. Shark helicopter patrols will begin on Saturday, with the two choppers initially flying between Yanchep and Hamelin Bay in WA’s South West on weekends before expanding to seven days a week as the weather warms up. It is expected to be another busy season for the sea rescue organisation after last year SLSWA helicopter services carried out 719 patrols, spotting 777 shark sightings and triggered 101 beach closures across almost 1000 flying hours. Twelve people drowned in WA last summer, all of them outside of patrolled areas. There were also 773 rescues by SLSWA, a 150 per cent increase to the year before. The trend is tipped to continue according to SLSWA general manager Chris Peck who said coastal developments meant more people were accessing the beaches in unpatrolled areas. “It’s hard to say year on year what will occur, but what we do know is that there is much development going on along the coastline and people are accessing the coastline in areas more than ever so it is likely that the trend will continue along that way,” he said. “At City Beach we can see it already, the development around here means that there are more people visiting this beach location and they’re not necessarily swimming between the flags like we’d like them to so we can look after them.” Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis said the State Government had put $13.2 million into a three-year-deal to help the organisation deliver helicopter, beach and jet ski patrols. “Of course we have 25,000 volunteers who are part of the Surf Life Saving family, and they are also our eyes and ears,” she said. “They also feed into that data collection system that’s also funded so that we can make sure we stay shark smart.”