Drone technology won’t be ‘foolproof’ but should ‘mitigate the risk’, NSW premier says
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says the state government’s expansion of shark surveillance came in response to a reduction in the number of people visiting beaches amid a spate of shark attacks.
Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, he said people had been rattled by the recent attacks.
We now are in a situation where … we seen a reduction in the number of people who are enjoying our beaches and enjoying the Pacific Ocean, even in the winter period. So we know we want to take action … It’s not going to be foolproof. We can’t promise it won’t lead to further shark attacks in the future, but we think it’ll mitigate the risk.
Minns also reiterated his opposition to culling great white sharks to prevent future incidents, which some sectors of the community had called for following the attack of Leah Stewart at Coogee.
They’re a protected species. They’ve been a protected species since the 90s, and I’m not convinced it would work. I mean, the distances these sharks travel are massive. It’s not like we can knock a few off and send a message to the rest of them …
I think it’s a different situation for bull sharks. Generally they’re in our estuaries … We’re looking particularly at an audit of the number of sharks in Sydney Harbour. We want to keep people safe, particularly when there’s a higher number of people in the water.
Shark-spotting drone technology will be deployed in New South Wales year-round under a state government investment that it says will be the largest expansion of aerial shark surveillance in the world.
On Sunday, the state government announced an additional $34m in drones, including using artificial intelligence, to scale up coverage across beaches in Sydney and along the state’s coast.
Around 70 beaches will be monitored 365 days of the year, prioritising areas with high numbers of users and where shark incidents have become more common.
This expanded monitoring will start 1 July and include year-round coverage across all Sydney beaches expanding from 26 to 38. There will also be two SharkSmart listening stations in Sydney harbour to alert swimmers to the presence of tagged sharks.
The premier, Chris Minns, said people should “feel confident” visiting the state’s beaches.
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. More drones in the air means we’re getting a better picture of what’s happening offshore and it means we’ll get better at seeing them.
Good morning, readers.
It’s Caitlin Cassidy here with you this Sunday morning, and we’re kicking things off with a major New South Wales state government scale-up in shark-spotting drone technology after mounting concern over rising shark bites in Australia.
The state’s premier, Chris Minns, just appeared on Sky News where he spruiked the program, which follows a shock shark attack at Sydney’s popular Coogee beach.
Let’s get started.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
