Thousands of people gathered at a Perth beach on Saturday amid nationwide protests over Western Australia's catch-and-kill shark policy.
The protests came after a second shark killed under the policy was pulled from a baited drum line at a nearby beach.
The controversial policy allows great white, tiger and bull sharks larger than three metres to be killed. Smaller sharks are to be released.
Protesters at Cottesloe Beach, Perth. Photo: AAP
The ABC reports that undersized tiger sharks have been caught and set free but on Saturday morning fisheries officers pulled up an undersized shark that was already dead.
The protests began early on Saturday when a 19-year-old woman locked herself to one of the two fisheries vessels being used to set and monitor baited hooks off the Perth coast and had to be cut free by emergency services.
An estimated 6000 people joined the rally at Perth's Cottesloe Beach, nearly 2,000 people gathered at Manly Beach in Sydney and protesters also gathered at Glenelg in Adelaide and beaches in Victoria and Queensland.
A handful of people in support of the shark culling policy attended the rally at Cottesloe Beach and one said his group was intimidated into leaving.
John Bell, a friend and former colleague of a man killed in a suspected shark attack in 2011, said Perth has some of the best beaches in the world, but people are too scared to use them.
WA premier Colin Barnett has defended the policy and said it will run through until April and then again next summer.
New Zealand protest
More than 70 people opposed to the cull gathered outside the Australian High Commission in Thorndon, Wellington on Saturday.
Protest group Shark Defence Aotearoa said rare and threatened species of shark are being killed because of incompetent politicians.
It said non-lethal alternatives for removing the shark risk include tracking systems that can alert beachgoers when they are near.
