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Conservationists are attempting to reignite public discussion on the use of drumlines and shark nets off Queensland's coast ahead of a new film being released today.

Envoy: Shark Cull director and producerAndre Borell said the film criticised the efficacy and morality of Queensland's shark control program.

"These programs are not what the public perceives them to be," he said.

"A lot of people think shark nets are a barrier.They're not they're a fishing device."

The decades-old debate on theissue hasconsistently returned to the deathsof dolphins, whales and turtles, as well as the feasibility of non-lethal alternatives.

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But the political conundrum faced by state governments was possibly best summarised by a contractor who removed dead animals from nets inNew South Walesmore than 30 years ago.

"Whoever is in power at the time and decides to take [shark nets] away, whoever it is, if there's a shark attacktheir lives wouldn't be worth living," fisheries contractor Jim Lumb told the ABC in 1990.

"People in general would crucify them."

Supplied:Dr Olaf Meynecke

Queensland's shark control program began to receive increased media attention in the early 1990sas the humpback population recovered from commercial whalingand dramatic footageof entangled whales appeared more regularly on television.

The 1992 drowning of a nine-year-old boyin dislodged shark equipment off the Gold Coast prompted a review of the program.

But since its implementation in 1962, only two fatal shark attacks have been recorded onQueensland beachesthat had nets or drumlines in place.

While he admittedthat the figure "does cut through" in the public debate, Mr Borell said most netted or drumlined beaches werepatrolled, meaning first aid wasusually at hand.

ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale

"Framing the success of shark nets around how many fatalities have occurred at a beach or not is deceptive," he said.

"The position the government has gotten themselves into by running these programs for so long is they're now obliged to provide a level of safety.

"I don't think they can pull this out of the water and walk away."

Queensland's most recent fatal attack occurred at a busy Gold Coast beach with eight drumlines and a shark netin place.

Supplied: Queensland Government

Queensland's shark control program costs $9.5 million annually and has caught 15,978 animals since 2001, about 12,400 of which were sharks.

The remaining by-catch includes fish, dugongs, dolphins, turtles and whales.

In 2020 a Department of Fisheries Shark Control Program Scientific Working Group voiced its support for a trial to replace nets withdrum lines during the winter whale migration season.

But the state government has not pursued thetrial.

"The Shark Control Program has been keeping people safe at Queenslands most popular swimming beaches since 1962," Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Minister Mark Furnersaid.

"We have no plans to remove Shark Control Program equipment from Queensland-controlled waters."

Mr Furner's office did not respond to direct questions as to why the state government has not enacted the Scientific Working Group's proposed trial.

Alternative shark controlmethods have long been explored across Australia, including non-lethal barriers, Shark Management Alert in Real Time (SMART) drumlines,and a trial of acoustic alarms fitted to nets in 2010.

Butthe methods advocated by Mr Borell, including the useof shark-spotting drones, have been described as 'pure madness' by Mr Furner.

"Envoy: Cull is not a documentary, is not balanced and does not present all of the facts about the Shark Control Program," Mr Furnersaid.

ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale

But Mr Borell said his "science-based documentary" conveyed an argument potentially lost in day-to-day media coverage and pushedpolicy-makers to "put politics aside".

"That is a hard message to get through," he said.

"The documentary I believe does it, doing it in a sound grab or interview is a bit more difficult."

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The decades-old debate on shark nets has returned, but the same political conundrum never left - ABC News