WA's daily newspaper has denied it is scaremongering after publishing a provocative mocked-up front page image depicting a shark lurking behind young children.
The controversial decision by The West Australian to publish the photoshopped image - seemingly inspired by the Jaws films - comes in the wake of two fatal shark attacks off WA in the past week.
Doreen Collyer, 60, died on Sunday after she was attacked while diving for crayfish off Mindarie, while surfer Ben Gerring, 29, succumbed to his injuries on Friday after a shark had severed his leg while surfing at Falcon, near Mandurah, on   May 31. 
The front page - complete with headline asking 'WILL IT TAKE THIS?' - points to a story inside questioning whether drum lines should be deployed to catch sharks or if the metropolitan shark fishery that was closed by Labor in 2007 should be reopened.
Editor Brett McCarthy told Radio 6PR's Morning program the front page was about creating a debate.
"I don't think it's about creating fear," he told host Gary Adshead.
"One of things that has been said to me time and time again in the past week in particular, both from readers and people in the community is, will it take an attack on a child for something to be done?
"I think people are worried about that. There has been a large amount of correspondence along that line. It is now clearly a public safety issue. I don't think the politicians on either side should be able to hide from this. It's a matter of public safety.
"We pay taxes, we live in a civil society, we have a government and this is nothing other than a major public safety incident."
Mr McCarthy questioned whether the state government was brave enough to ban swimming, if there was no other way it could protect beachgoers.
"Are they [the government] brave enough to ban swimming? If they don't want to deal with the number of sharks out in the ocean and they accept the responsibility of the government is to keep people safe, is that the next step," he asked.
Most callers to the program were unimpressed with the paper's approach.
"That is journalism at its worst," caller Trevor told Radio 6PR.
Others expressed disappointment on The West's Twitter page.
@westaustralian I expected better than a newscorp type cover or report from you guys. #tabloid
??? Paul Wright (@pswright80)   June 7, 2016
@westaustralian Really ... is that your contribution to a reasoned debate?
??? Glyn East (@glyneast1)   June 7, 2016
@westaustralian wow, just when you thought the West Australian couldn't get any worse... what a pile of sensationalist bollocks.
??? Stu with a You (@StuRap)   June 7, 2016
@westaustralian what on earth do you think you are doing? Responsible Reporting or pandering to fears!!! What rubbish!
??? Beth Perry (@BethGittos)   June 7, 2016
The shark cull debate has drawn the attention of both sides of politics, with Liberal and Labor both in favour of maintaining the status quo - by which sharks are only hunted when they are deemed to be a threat to the public.
Fisheries confirmed that drum lines would be re-set off Mindarie on Wednesday to help catch the shark responsible for Ms Collyer's death.
The Barnett government abandoned a shark mitigation strategy involving deployment of drumlines last year after it failed to receive environmental approval.
Ironically, The West's front page was trumped by News Corp's Sydney tabloid, The Daily Telegraph, which today posted a real photo of a shark jumping out of the water as a man rides a wave nearby.
A sliding Jaws moment. Front page of The Daily Telegraph pic.twitter.com/warUs7kFDb
??? Christopher Dore (@wrongdorey)   June 7, 2016
Follow WAtoday on Twitter