Shark-Spotting Drones to Watch 70 NSW Beaches Every Day of the Year

The government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, has announced a major plan to keep swimmers safer from sharks. Starting July 1, drone aircraft will fly over about 70 ocean beaches along the NSW coast every single day of the year. The announcement came just two weeks after a 34-year-old mother named Leah Stewart was seriously hurt in a suspected white shark attack at Coogee Beach in Sydney.

The state government said it will spend an extra $34 million on the shark-spotting drone program. That brings the total amount spent on the NSW Shark Mitigation Program to $120 million over the next two years. Surf Life Saving NSW will run the program, focusing on beaches that have the most swimmers and surfers, and where shark sightings have been more common.

The new plan covers every ocean beach from Palm Beach to Cronulla. Drones will fly every weekend all year long, and every single day from December 1 to April 30. That means beaches that only had patrols during busy summer months will now have coverage in winter and spring too.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the goal is to spot sharks early so people in the water can be warned quickly. 'While no-one can ever promise no shark interactions, this investment is about putting more eyes in the sky so we can spot sharks earlier and give people a clear heads-up when they're in the water,' he said. He added that more drones will give authorities a better view of what is happening just offshore.

The government also announced it will test two new artificial intelligence systems that can help detect sharks from drone footage. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is computer technology that can learn to recognize things — in this case, sharks in the ocean. These AI trials will happen during the coming summer season to see if the technology can spot sharks even faster than humans watching video feeds.

Leah Stewart, the swimmer hurt at Coogee Beach, was in a critical condition after the attack but has been making progress. She woke up from an induced coma last week and was reunited with her daughter. Her brother Joshua Stewart shared an update on an online fundraiser that has raised more than $520,000 for the family, saying that Leah has shown great strength in her recovery.

There were no drones patrolling Coogee Beach at the time of the attack because the beach is close to Sydney Airport's flight path, which prevents drones from flying there. The government has not yet said how it plans to handle that issue going forward. The attack prompted officials to act quickly and expand the drone program.

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce called the funding the 'largest ever funding commitment to shark management in Australia.' He said the drone program has already proven very effective, having identified and prevented over 2,000 sharks from coming near swimmers and surfers this year alone. The program has also completed more than 100,000 drone flights so far.