Sharks have been eating fish from commercial fishing lines in much greater numbers since control nets were removed from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 2019, Port Douglas fishers say.

Trout fisherman David “Foota” Lewkowski said this week bull shark numbers were now “out of control”, with packs of sharks often following his boat looking for food.

“The sharks are a massive problem and they’re getting worse,” he said.

“Everyone knows there’s a major shark problem out there.”

He said the sharks seem to know when a fish is hooked and they attack straight away.

“If we get sharked out we have to leave the area,” he said.

Fellow Douglas fisherman Gallagher Harbisher Thomson said the problem had been worsening since shark netting was taken away.

“They’re out of control,” he said. “They’re eating everything.”

Mr Harbisher Thomson said he had seen several different types of shark taking commercial fishing catches, including bull sharks, bronze whalers and whitetips.

In 2019 a Federal Court decision backed major changes to the Federal Government’s permit allowing Queensland to operate its shark-control program.

Shark nets in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park were removed as part of the changes, with then Queensland Fisheries Minister Mark Furner saying the restrictions meant it was no longer possible to carry out control measures legally and safely.

He said the changes had turned Queensland’s program from a “catch and remove the risk” program to a “catch and release the risk” program.

An ongoing study by the University of Sunshine Coast, started in 2023 and set to wrap up later this year, has tagged more than 60 bull sharks in that region and has taken genetic samples from nearly 300 bitten fish in an effort to better understand how they operate.