Drone user raises shark alarm

[RobertR]

A British expat in Australia spotted a shark using his drone, and alerted the Lifeguards.

British drone user raises shark alarm in Australia

The expat spotted a great white swimming close to a packed beach and called to have it evacuated.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[GFields]

Thanks for sharing

 

[mereflyer]

A British expat in Australia spotted a shark using his drone, and alerted the Lifeguards.

British drone user raises shark alarm in Australia

The expat spotted a great white swimming close to a packed beach and called to have it evacuated.

www.bbc.co.uk

In my opinion, drones are way under utilized for this very important role of shark spotting.
I've always thought it could be arranged for a team of drones to be on call at all main swimming beaches everywhere around Australia.

Surprising really that this has'nt taken on more of a priority - what do you others think about this?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

In my opinion, drones are way under utilized for this very important role of shark spotting.
I've always thought it could be arranged for a team of drones to be on call at all main swimming beaches everywhere around Australia.

Surprising really that this has'nt taken on more of a priority - what do you others think about this?

It IS a great idea, drones can certainly see through most water on busy beach days . . . nice and calm and clear.
They can 'spot' things from the air that you can't from a lifesavers tower, or from a jetski / board etc.

Probably the #1 thing is flight time for constant (meaningful) surveillance.
2nd thing is probably beach area / length, and patrolling out to say 200m for sharks, even 50 metres or so for swimmers or those taken in a rip.
It'd be almost impossible to keep the types of drones SLSA associations use now in the air long enough, the traditional quads ranging from Mavic size to Matrice size.

They certainly COULD use winged drones, as they fly a lot further / longer / faster than traditional quads.
That'd probably be a step they've considered, having a pilot full time on such things would be another thing, probably need 2 pilots at least to rest the eyes now and then, even automated flights up and down the beach surfline would need to have screen observers resting eyes now and then.

Drones probably are used for reactive shark sightings and missing person incidents now, get them up along with lifesavers out on jetskis to scare off sharks or rescues.

Lots of great things to come with UAV tech.

 

[Bob in Savannah]

In my opinion, drones are way under utilized for this very important role of shark spotting.
I've always thought it could be arranged for a team of drones to be on call at all main swimming beaches everywhere around Australia.

Surprising really that this has'nt taken on more of a priority - what do you others think about this?

Definitely NOT a practical option at the moment.
I wont waste my time explaining why a beachline full of drones flying around and over bikini clad skanks and juveniles (that both wear the identical same nonsense lol) would NEVER be option. You can figure that one out...

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Definitely NOT a practical option at the moment.
I wont waste my time explaining why a beachline full of drones flying around and over bikini clad skanks and juveniles (that both wear the identical same nonsense lol) would NEVER be option. You can figure that one out...

Unless the sharks have been caught and hauled on the beach next to the said sunbaking sheilas, this isn't likely to be an issue though.

I feel this sort of proactive use for drones will not be far away.
A winged drone flying say 100m (328') offshore, 120m alt, with decent look down camera, decent screen / monitor at base (perhaps in the lifeguard tower), autonomous route planning, flight could be fairly fast at that alt and still be very battery efficient, and cover a beaches main swim zone and a little out from there in 2 or 3 runs up / down.

Pilot (and maybe an extra observer) monitoring the flight, possibly even uploading in a loop to a cloud storage to review if needed.
There might even be software that can detect shark like shapes and sound an alert to the crew, there is tech like this now for various industries.

At the moment, shark spotting by aircraft is a fairly effective method, they routinely cover all of our beaches here in peak season, but drones of the right type could be a lot easier, spontaneous, and cheaper as tech evolves in the near future.