A dead whale shark, measuring 13 meters in length, lies after it was stranded on the Pandansimo beach in Bantul
A dead whale shark, measuring 13 meters in length, lies after it was stranded on the Pandansimo beach in Bantul, near the city of Yogyakarta August 2, 2012. REUTERS/Dwi Oblo

A paper in the Australian Journal of Political Science has suggested that the West Australain government's response to shark attacks was similar to that of the movie "Jaws." The paper said that the government's response relied hugely on the myths of the movie.

The research paper was authored by Dr Christopher Neff, a lecturer in public policy in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, reported the Sydney Morning Herald. Dr Neff said that with the help of his research, he had identified "a worrying style of policy making." He had compared policies that different WA governments between 2000 and 2014 had implemented and he had found a huge resemblance to the Spielberg classic.

The paper by Dr Neff stated that the portrayal of sharks was big business for motion pictures and the television. It cited the example of Jaws by saying that it was the seventh highest grossing film of all time, with a collection of over $1 billion. It said that the popularity of the movie was because of the theme of the film that remained with the people.

The research paper stated that the "Jaws Effect" was basically a political device which was based upon three themes from the film. Dr Neff wrote that the themes that reflected on the government's response were the intentionality of the sharks, the thought that suggests that all interactions between humans and sharks would be fatal and the idea that the only solution to shark attacks was to kill the shark.

He said that the "Imminent Threat" policy that the current government had come up with was largely predicated on the movie. The policy involve catching and killing "rogue" sharks. The government's policy says that sharks that pose an "imminent threat" to beachgoers should be killed. He said that the policy was making use of myths and did not really provide beach safety.

Premier Colin Barnett has always mentioned "public safety" as a reason for killing sharks. He has used the term "rogue shark" many times and when he was criticised for using the term, he responded by saying that they were not talking about a Hollywood movie or anything like that.