The NSW Government is installing a further 85 drumlines to take out sharks on the north coast.

The government has been pressured to respond to the latest attack, after a 17-year-old surfer was bitten last week. 

The so-called ‘smart’ drumlines carry baited hooks attached to buoys that alert authorities when a shark is hooked so it can be tagged and relocated.

Surfer and former prime minister Tony Abbott advocated a more fatal approach, declaring: “If it's a choice between people and animals, I'm on the side of the people every time”.

Five of the 11 recent attacks in northern NSW have occurred at Ballina beaches, leaving locals on edge, but CSIRO research suggests the number of fatal shark attacks has actually been quite steady for the last 20 years.

The experts say the rise in attacks in recent decades “coincides with an increasing human population, more people visiting beaches, a rise in the popularity of water-based fitness and recreational activities and people accessing previously isolated coastal areas”.

“The increase in shark attacks over the past two decades is consistent with international statistics of shark attacks increasing annually because of the greater numbers of people in the water,” they concluded in a 2011 report.

There has been a lot of criticism of the various responses to shark attacks, with experts arguing that the culling of protected species in response to individual events does not save lives,

NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair says the new equipment works.

“We've had a great success rate with smart drumlines, we've been able to tag numerous sharks and relocate them, but we're leaving all options on the table,” Mr Blair told reporters.

“We will increase the number deployed off NSW from 15 to 100.”