Drone fleet to operate at ‘shark smorgasbord’ beaches
The largest array of drones, drumlines and shark listening stations in NSW’s history will be deployed along the coast this summer in a bid to reduce the chance of fatal attack.
Scientists are also accelerating the development of devices that will increase the ability to predict when sharks may be tempted to bite humans – and deterring or confounding them when they are.
The state government has spent more than US$16 million to bolster the technological defences against shark attacks. Niall Blair, the state’s Primary Industries Minister, said that aerial surveillance including drones and drumlines will be key to this summer’s defences. The government has also poured money into PhDs to improve our understanding of shark behaviours.
Across Australia this year there have been 15 ‘‘unprovoked’’ shark attacks – including the one fatality at Cid Harbour – with seven of them in NSW, according to Taronga Zoo’s Australian Shark Attack File. Swimmers were evacuated from Maroubra beach on Saturday morning after a four metre white shark was spotted near the coast. The sighting came just days after a 4.65-metre great white shark was caught in nets off the same beach.
If sharks were keen on humans, bite numbers would be much higher, Vincent Raoult, a marine ecologist at the University of Newcastle, says. ‘‘It’s a smorgasbord for sharks if you go to Bondi,’’ he says. ‘‘There are flavours from every nation.’’
Primary Industries Minister Blair is highly attuned to community fears about sharks, being among the first to receive a text about a shark attack. ‘‘It’s horrific for the person involved,’’ he says, adding it can also be traumatic for the victim’s family, friends and even local economies if people desert the beach.
Still, like stepping on a tiger snake on a bushwalk, there will always be risk involved in entering the surf, he says. ‘‘We can never be 100 per cent safe. We’re not going to drain the oceans of sharks.’’
Central to government efforts are so-called smart drumlines that snag the three key target species – whites, tigers, and bulls. The animals are released after being tagged with sensors that trigger alerts when they approach listening stations dotted offshore.
Research published this month by Raoult has identified drones as offering much better real-time information to scientists and lifesavers alike about how close sharks are to swimmers and potentially the risk of an attack.– Fairfax
‘‘We’re not going to drain the oceans of sharks.’’ Niall Blair, Primary Industries Minister