Oz shark squads attach tags to warn swimmers on app

Sensible people might prefer to flee at torpedo speed from a great white shark, but there's one job in Australia that pays you to race towards the predators.

- 

And when you reach the big fish, you have to fix a tracker to its dorsal fin while bobbing in a boat on the ocean swell.

The job is key to a sophisticated protection network that lets swimmers, surfers and fishers check for the aquatic hunters in real time when they venture into the water.

Every day, workers lay 305 satellite-linked buoys at popular spots in waters up to 15m deep along the coastline of New South Wales as part of the state-run programme.

The so-called smart drumlines have baited hooks and when a shark takes a bite it is caught, sending a signal to the tagging team. Then comes the hard part.

But it's not the wild “rodeo” people might think, said Paul Butcher, principal research scientist for the state government shark tagging and tracking programme for the past 10 years.

“The sharks are really benign. The process has little impact on those sharks,” he said.